GOLDA MEIR

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

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!

The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.

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

There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.

We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel.

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

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.

As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.

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.

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

Being seventy is not a sin.

Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.

We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

The dog that trots about finds a bone.

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

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

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.

Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.