“Nothing in life happens. It isn’t enough to believe in something. You have to have the stamina to meet obstacles and overcome them… What you do is what you are.”
“To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.”
“I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.”
“Don’t be so humble – you’re not that great.”
“We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead, This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”
“We don’t want wars even when we win.”
“What we hold against Nasser is not only the killing of our sons but forcing them for the sake of Israel’s survival to kill others.”
“The only alternative to war is peace. The only road to peace is negotiation.”
When the West German government requested diplomatic relations with Israel, Golda said: “This means for ever Israeli a debate between the head and the heart.”
“The only thing we have ever wanted to conquer, and did to a certain extent, is the desert. It is the only joy we have in conquest, and we do something about it.”
When Billy Graham asked Golda the secret of Israel’s success in Africa, she said: “We go there to teach, not to preach.”
“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”
“I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.”