Quotes from Golda Meir

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.

The world hates a Jew who hits back. The world loves us only when we are to be pitied.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

Being seventy is not a sin.

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

Don't be so humble. You're not that great.

The only way to eliminate war is to love our children more than we hate our enemies.

I'm sure that someday children in schools will study the history of the men who made war as you study an absurdity. They'll be shocked, just as today we're shocked with cannibalism.

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.

We say peace and the echo comes back from the other side, war. We dont want wars even when we win.

The dog that trots about finds a bone.

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.

I want to be able to live without a crowded calendar. I want to be able to read a book without feeling guilty, or go to a concert when I like.

There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.

Men are committing the rapes. Let them be put under curfew.

At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Don't be humble . . . you're not that great.

Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.

There was no such thing as Palestinians…. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people… and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.

We only want that which is given naturally to all peoples of the world, to be masters of our own fate, only of our fate, not of others, and in cooperation and friendship with others.

Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that.