Abba Eban Quotes

• Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

  Abba Eban

  Opportunity, Missing, Palestinian

  Quoted in N.Y. Times, 18 Dec. 1988

  38 Copy quote

• History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

  Abba Eban

  Funny, Sarcastic, War

  Speech in London, 16 Dec. 1970, in The Times 17 Dec. 1970

  77 Copy quote

• If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.

  Abba Eban

  Israel, Algeria, Earth

  "A fence built for peace" by Abba Eban, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2004.

  61 Copy quote

• Nobody does Israel any service by proclaiming its 'right to exist.' Israel's right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia and 152 other states, is axiomatic and unreserved. Israel's legitimacy is not suspended in midair awaiting acknowledgement.... There is certainly no other state, big or small, young or old, that would consider mere recognition of its 'right to exist' a favor, or a negotiable concession.

  Abba Eban

  Israel, United States, Arabia

  33 Copy quote

• A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.

  Abba Eban

  Sarcastic, Believe, Mean

  30 Copy quote

• I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.

  Abba Eban

  War, Unconditional Love, Thinking

  "The Impact of the Six-Day War: A Twenty-Year Assessment". Book by Stephen J. Roth, 1988.

  19 Copy quote

• Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.

  Abba Eban

  Differences, Tragedy, Could Have Been

  19 Copy quote

• His ignorance is encyclopedic.

  Abba Eban

  Sarcastic, Clever, Ignorance

  19 Copy quote

• Zionism is nothing more, but also nothing less, than the Jewish People's sense of origin and destination in the Land linked eternally with its name. It is also the instrument whereby the Jewish Nation seeks an authentic fulfillment of itself.

  Abba Eban

  Land, Names, People

  25 Copy quote

• Better to be disliked than pitied.

  Abba Eban

  14 Copy quote

• You can't achieve anything without getting in someone's way. You can't be detached and effective.

  Abba Eban

  Change, Achievement, Way

  26 Copy quote

• One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.

  Abba Eban

  Israel, Tasks, World

  26 Copy quote

• Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives

  Abba Eban

  Alternatives, Exhausted, Humans

  16 Copy quote

• Israel is not an aviary.

  Abba Eban

  Israel

  27 Copy quote

• It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.

  Abba Eban

  Leadership, Mean, Opposites

  17 Copy quote

• A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.

  Abba Eban

  Writing, Justice, Diversity

  Abba Eban (1969). “My people: the story of the Jews”, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson

  19 Copy quote

• The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe their minorities, whoever they might be.

  Abba Eban

  Minorities, Embodiment, Might

  24 Copy quote

• Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don’t worship it. Feed it.
  [Addressing a group of prospective contributors to an Israeli scientific research program]

  Abba Eban

  Horse, Groups, Research

  13 Copy quote

• Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.

  Abba Eban

  Men, Rejection, Missing

  Abba Solomon Eban (1968). “Forward to peace: text of the address in the twenty-third plenary session of the Gerneral Assembly of the United Nations, Monday, 8 October, 1968”

  20 Copy quote

• Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.

  Abba Eban

  Believe, People, Belief

  16 Copy quote

• Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man's initiative.

  Abba Eban

  Men, Waiting, Initiative

  Abba Eban (1969). “My people: the story of the Jews”, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson

  12 Copy quote

• A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.

  Abba Eban

  Ears, Movement, Elegance

  Abba Solomon Eban (1999). “Diplomacy for the Next Century”, p.88, Yale University Press

  9 Copy quote

• Playing the game I have learned the meaning of humility. It has given me an understanding of futility of the human effort.

  Abba Eban

  Humility, Golf, Futility Of Life

  17 Copy quote

• It [idolatry] nourishes mans ambition to domineer over his fellow man. Idolatry, therefore, is the source of all social and moral evil in the world.

  Abba Eban

  Ambition, Men, Evil

  Abba Eban (1969). “My people: the story of the Jews”, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson

  9 Copy quote

• Our intention to regard the closing of the Straits as a casus belli was communicated...to the foreign ministers of those states which had supported international navigation in the Straits in 1957 and thereafter. There can be no doubt that these warnings reached Cairo. One thing was now clear. If Nasser imposed a blockade, the explosion would ensue not from 'miscalculation', but from an open-eyed and conscious readiness for war.

  Abba Eban

  War, Doubt, Cairo

  8 Copy quote

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