David Ben-Gurion Quotes

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.

The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill: from the Nile to the Euphrates.

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

We regard it as our duty to declare that Jewish Jerusalem is an organic and inseparable part of the State of Israel, as it is an inseparable part of the history of Israel, of the faith of Israel.

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

It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested.

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

No city in the world, not even Athens or Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people.

We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinians] never do return. The old will die and the young will forget,

Ours is a country built more on people than on territory. The Jews will come from everywhere: from France, from Russia, from America, from Yemen... Their faith is their passport.

A Jew is anyone who says he is.

If the antisemites want to hate, let them hate, and let them go to hell.

We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places.

Israel will not discuss a peace involving the concession of any piece of territory. The neighboring states do not deserve an inch of Israel's land. . . . We are ready for exchange for peace.

The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.

Referring to Palestinian refugees: "We must do everything in our power to ensure that they never return.

The Arabs of the land of Israel [ Palestinians] have only one functionleft to them -- to run away.

Thought is a strenuous art - few practice it, and then only at rare times.

We have preserved the book, and the book has preserved us.

Courage is... the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.

The most dangerous enemy to Israel's security is the intellectual inertia of those who are responsible for security.

It's not a matter of maintaining the status quo. We have to create a dynamic state, oriented towards expansion.

The great Jewish scientists and philosophers of the last few generations - Spinoza, Einstein, Freud, Robert Oppenheimer and others - were natives of Europe and America.

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

The assets of the Jewish National Home must be created exclusively through our own work, for only the product of the Hebrew labor can serve as the national estate.

When a Jew, in America or in South Africa, talks to his Jewish companions about 'our' government, he means the government of Israel.

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

Which are you first, a Jew or an American? A Jew.

We offer peace and neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Hebrew nation for the common good of all.

We consider that the United Nations' ideal is a Jewish ideal.

To shatter even the largest stones on earth, it takes only a small quantity of explosive powder.

We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return

The law is whatever people determine it to be.

From Jewish terrorism against Arabs it is a short step to Jewish terrorism against Jews.

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.

You must talk to us as equals, or not talk to us at all.

To be realistic, you have to believe in miracles.

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

The past is our very being.

The old will die and the young will forget.

Not the absorption capacity of the land, but the creative ability of a people, is the true yardstick with which we can measure the immigration potentialities of the land.

Under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them. Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement, should we offer to buy his land, at an appropriate price.

It is only in Hebrew that you feel the full meaning of it -- all the associations which a different word has.

We must assist the British in the war as if there were no White Paper and we must resist the White Paper as if there were no war.

We do not recognize the right of the Palestinian Arabs to rule the country, since Palestine is still undeveloped and awaits its builders.

After eighty, there are no enemies, only survivors.

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.

Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.

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

Courage is ... the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.