Golda Meir

"The most important quality in a leader is the ability to listen."

"I believe that women have a special gift for understanding the human heart."

"One must never lose sight of the fact that we are fighting for a just cause."

"I have always believed that it is never too late to start anew."

"The key to happiness is accepting what you cannot change and changing what you can."

"I believe that the future of humanity depends on our ability to live together in peace."

"One of the most important things I have learned is that success is not about reaching the top, but about helping others climb."

"I would rather have one day of living with honor and self-respect than a lifetime of survival at any cost."

"A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader."

"We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a five to one, even a hundred to one superiority of weapons, but they had a superiority in the matter of not believing that we could exist."

"I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was right, I was for it regardless of whether it was popular or not."

"Make the most of what you have before you lose it."

"Not being punctual is a great disrespect to all the people that are waiting for you."

"Anybody who believes you can't change history is not living in reality. It's being changed all the time, under our eyes."

"The important thing is not what they write about you, but how you react to what is written about you."

"We say that our youth can participate in the democratic process. I don't see any reason to lower the voting age to 14, but I see no reason to raise it above 18."

"I have always believed that the test of all religions is how well their followers treat each other."

"You cannot save people against their will."

"Ability hits the mark when chance cannot."

"Whether women are better than men I cannot say, but I can say they are certainly no worse."

"A woman does not have to live through her husband and her children alone. This can be her life, and it can be a very satisfying life, but there must be something more."

"The only thing that doesn't change is that everything changes, and we are learning that the hardest way."

"Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never afford."

"I inherited a world filled with difficulties and sorrows. I also inherited the tradition of struggle and the will to overcome."

"We don't make mistakes by accident. We make them by choice."

"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young."

"If we have to have a choice between being naughty and being nice, I'd rather be naughty."

"I have never been a person who supposes that I know everything."

"You cannot build a personal relationship without the element of honesty and you cannot become a friend without the element of loyalty."

"The world has a way of making you forget what you think you know."