Daily Inspiration Quote by David Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion’s line is a power move disguised as practical advice: authority matters, but not as much as outcomes. Coming from a statesman who helped midwife a country under siege and improvisation, it reads less like motivational poster fodder than an operating principle for survival. “Expert” is both respected and demoted in the same breath. Knowledge is necessary; it’s also contestable, replaceable, and sometimes simply wrong.

The intent isn’t anti-intellectualism. It’s anti-fatalism. Ben-Gurion is pushing back against the bureaucratic reflex that confuses “can’t” with “won’t,” and treats professional consensus as a natural law. By recommending “another expert,” he’s not rejecting expertise; he’s insisting on plural expertise, on competition between frameworks. In politics and war, the first expert often protects institutional comfort: risk avoidance, reputational hedging, the maintenance of what already exists. The second expert might be the one willing to revise assumptions, tolerate uncertainty, and translate theory into action under pressure.

Subtextually, it’s also a warning about how “expertise” can become a veto. When stakes are high, the phrase “it can’t be done” can function as moral cover for inaction. Ben-Gurion’s rhetorical trick is to turn that veto into a solvable procurement problem: if one authority blocks you, shop for another authority. That’s cynical, yes, but it’s also democratic in a rough way. It treats knowledge as a tool in service of decisions, not a throne that decisions must bow to.