Golda Meir

"I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's way of thinking, and largely my mother's contempt for excessive emotion or being a show-off."

"Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself."

"You cannot admire what you do not understand."

"I have no use for people who give me their sympathy. I rather have their effort."

"The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense effort that it takes to exist."

"Women's liberation should make it possible for every woman to be herself, and not to shape herself according to the needs of men."

"I always say that if you could really fall in love deeply it would be for life."

"The State of Israel must, from time to time, rise up and destroy its enemies."

"I am not a woman who feels her way through the world. I think my way through it."

"Whatever we do will be insignificant, but it is very important that we do it."

"A Jewish state is not a state where Jews rule over non-Jews. It is a state where Jewish law and Jewish values predominate."

"Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either."

"I have heard it said that there is a technique to successful marriage. I never knew what it was, since my wife and I have managed it by simply adoring one another."

"The function of a government is to make it easy for people to do good and difficult for them to do evil."

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

"I suppose the most important thing is not to lose your sense of humor, even when dealing with the gravest matters."

"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left."

"Every country has the right to security. But this right cannot be pursued in a way that prevents Palestinians from pursuing theirs."

"I want to be remembered as someone who worked for peace, and worked hard at it."

"The Jews, as a people, have a responsibility for the land of Israel and for the Jewish people worldwide."

"We cannot, in the long run, be a people that makes its living by warfare and military force alone. We must build."

"There is nothing that so sustains the human spirit as the determination to do good and to create beauty in this world."

"You can express anything you want through your face. It's like a window to the world."

"I want to live my life in such a way that when I die, whoever writes my biography will have to admit I was a great man."

"Nations, like individuals, must assume responsibility for their own survival and security."

"To be or not to be is not the question. How to be is the question."

"They order things better in France. At least they have the good sense to appreciate good wine."

"One cannot rule by force alone. You must have a consent of the governed. And that consent can be manufactured."

"I always say that I have a very happy home life because my wife understands me completely."

"What I love about Israel is that the society, the cultural and intellectual life in Israel is very dynamic."