Golda Meir

"As a child, I was taught that it is kind to share your toys. As a grown-up, I was taught it is foolish."

"The Jews of the world are our partners. They live in exile. We do not live in exile."

"Nobody has to convince me that I am Jewish. I was born Jewish, and I will die Jewish, like my parents before me."

"I am not a prophet and I am not going to pretend to be one."

"Courage, it turns out, is something you cultivate like a plant. You tend it, you nurture it, and gradually it grows."

"We must never forget that art is not meant to decorate walls. It is war against brutality and darkness."

"A nation is not judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest."

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

"The duty of an educated person is to help the less fortunate."

"I do not think I have ever been so conscious of a word until after I heard myself speak it."

"History is not something that can be kept at arm's length. It is something you become."

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists."

"I have always held firmly to the thought that each person has the right to self-determination."

"One cannot simply walk into the future without first understanding the past."

"The day that you stop learning is the day that you stop being."

"If there is one thing that seems to me absolutely essential, it is that we should never lose faith in humanity."

"I've been watching democracy in this country for some years now, and I cannot say I like it."

"Silence is sometimes an art, and sometimes a failing. The trick is knowing which."

"A good leader is someone you follow even when you don't have to."

"Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us."

"We can forgive the Arabs for not knowing history, but we cannot forgive them for forgetting it."

"The only thing that doesn't come and go are memories—they come and stay."

"People who believe they can change the world are the people who do."

"It is not enough to be a woman. One must also know what it means to be a woman."

"There is nothing more important than to respect every human being, but to respect does not mean to agree."

"I always say that a door is closed if the person on the other side will not open it."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but those who do remember it are condemned to watch others repeat it."

"I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. My faith demands that I do."

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths."

"We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton comes up as a result of the work of science."