David Ben-Gurion

“Courage is ... the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.”

“There are eleven million Jews in the world. I don't say that all of them will come here, but I expect several million, and with natural increase I can quite imagine a Jewish state of ten mil...”

“If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.”

“The great Jewish scientists and philosophers of the last few generations - Spinoza, Einstein, Freud, Robert Oppenheimer and others - were natives of Europe and America.”

“Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world - the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism.”

“Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.”

“Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.”

“Ours is a country built more on people than on territory. The Jews will come from everywhere: from France, from Russia, from America, from Yemen... Their faith is their passport.”

“In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.”

“Thought is a strenuous art - few practice it, and then only at rare times.”