David Ben-Gurion

“The Bible is the most precious and the most profound of all human creations.”

“In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.”

“If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.”

“It's not enough to be up to date, you have to be up to tomorrow.”

“The State of Israel will prove itself not by material wealth, not by military might or technical achievement, but by its moral character and human values.”

“Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.”

“The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.”

“What matters is not what the goyim say, but what the Jews do.”

“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.”

“We must do everything to insure they [the Palestinians] never do return.”

“Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.”

“Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.”

“If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country.”

“We will make the Negev bloom.”