482 Quotes by Israeli authors

Israeli sayings blend desert-dry wit with tender undercurrents, where chutzpah meets doubt and hope argues with history. Voices range from Talmudic disputation to street-corner banter, salty as the Mediterranean and sharp as a sabra’s thorn. Themes of survival, improvisation, and communal responsibility sit beside restless longing and fierce individuality. Humor punctures solemnity, memory leans forward, and love of land complicates love of peace. Brevity and bite spark flashes of lyric grace, sentences that wrestle, bless, and keep moving.

See the complete list of authors from Israel

"We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it, that governs it by the virtue of its language and savage culture"

Moshe Sharett, Statesman

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you"

Jesus Christ, Prophet

Small: Jesus Christ

"You don't make peace with friends. You make it with very unsavory enemies"

Yitzhak Rabin, Statesman

"If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions"

Abba Eban, Diplomat

"The Holocaust is a central event in many people's lives, but it also has become a metaphor for our century. There cannot be an end to speaking and writing about it. Besides, in Israel, everyone carries a biography deep inside him"

Aharon Appelfeld, Novelist

"Our American friends offer us money, arms, and advice. We take the money, we take the arms, and we decline the advice"

Moshe Dayan, Soldier

Small: Moshe Dayan

"Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!"

Golda Meir, Leader

"One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all"

Abba Eban, Diplomat

"Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it"

Haim Ginott, Teacher

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

Golda Meir, Leader

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies"

Moshe Dayan, Soldier

Small: Moshe Dayan

"In my office in Jerusalem, there's an ancient seal. It's a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there's a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu"

Benjamin Netanyahu, Leader

"Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do"

Golda Meir, Leader

"The Old City of Jerusalem is in our hands"

Moshe Dayan, Soldier

Small: Moshe Dayan

"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul"

Moshe Dayan, Soldier

Small: Moshe Dayan

"His ignorance is encyclopedic"

Abba Eban, Diplomat

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me"

Jesus Christ, Prophet

Small: Jesus Christ

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

David Ben-Gurion, Statesman

"Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable"

Shimon Peres, Statesman

"Obviously, CGI in the last ten years has gone through such leaps and bounds that today, people are looking for these kinds of movies to wow audiences with technology"

Avi Arad, Businessman

"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"

Golda Meir, Leader

"One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present"

Golda Meir, Leader

"Don't be humble... you're not that great"

Golda Meir, Leader

"By the reduction of the Arabs on the one hand and Jewish immigration in the transition period on the other, we will ensure an absolute Hebrew majority in a parliamentary regime"

Moshe Sharett, Statesman

"Arabs respect only the language of force"

Moshe Sharett, Statesman

"We do not celebrate the death of our enemies"

Yitzhak Rabin, Statesman

"First of all, Arafat is wrong. Jerusalem is Israel's capital, will never be divided, and will remain the capital of the State of Israel, the capital of the Jewish people, for ever and ever"

Benjamin Netanyahu, Leader

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

David Ben-Gurion, Statesman

"Well, my definition of a tragedy is a clash between right and right"

Amos Oz, Writer

"In this part of the world, Jews and Arabs will live together forever"

Yitzhak Shamir, Statesman

"You are a little god on earth running around"

Benny Hinn, Clergyman

"I am not thinking that because people say I am great that I really am great. I am just doing a job, just like everybody else. The only difference is that a lot more people see what I do"

Oded Fehr, Actor

"Israel is still the only country in the world against which there is a written document to the effect that it must disappear"

Menachem Begin, Statesman

"Intimate relationships are a gold mine for literature to explore, to understand, to describe"

A. B. Yehoshua, Novelist

"I'm a religious man. I am Jewish but I believe in all religions. I believe in God and see him as an old man with a big white beard and pray to him every day for a few minutes"

Uri Geller, Entertainer

"Like all Israelis, I yearn for peace. I see the utmost importance in taking all possible steps that will lead to a solution of the conflict with the Palestinians"

Ariel Sharon, Leader

"It's no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either"

Golda Meir, Leader

"Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself"

Golda Meir, Leader

"To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man"

Golda Meir, Leader

"Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome"

Golda Meir, Leader

Page 1 of 13