Ben David Quotes & Sayings

Everybody sees a difficulty in the question of relations between Arabs and Jews. But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution! There is a gulf, and nothing can bridge it ... We, as a nation, want this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be theirs. — David Ben-Gurion

The acceptance of partition does not commit us to renounce Transjordan: one does not demand from anybody to give up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today, but the boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them. — David Ben-Gurion

I'm increasingly on the side of thinkers like David Graeber who are talking back to this notion of totality and emphasizing how there are all kinds of moments in our daily lives that break - or at least could break - from the logic of profit and the modes of domination it entails. Zones of freedom, even if it's never pure. — Ben Lerner

The assets of the Jewish National Home must be created exclusively through our own work, for only the product of the Hebrew labor can serve as the national estate. — David Ben-Gurion

If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the Land of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of Israel. — David Ben-Gurion

We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return — David Ben-Gurion

We have preserved the book, and the book has preserved us. — David Ben-Gurion

We must assist the British in the war as if there were no White Paper and we must resist the White Paper as if there were no war. — David Ben-Gurion

In the land of Israel was born the Jewish nation. There came an order to kill the religious and social spirit of the people ... And after the nation turned back to its land with strength, it protected it steadfastly ... — David Ben-Gurion

Unfortunately for Ben and Granny, it turns out that ancient poo does still pong.) — David Walliams

Terrorism benefits the Arabs, it may lay waste the Yishuv and shake Zionism. But to follow in the Arabs' footsteps and ape their deeds is to be blind to the gulf between us. Our aims and theirs run counter: methods calculated to further theirs, are ruinous to us. — David Ben-Gurion

It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested. — David Ben-Gurion

Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive. — David Ben-Gurion

Argo might well be studied as a bait-and-switch masterwork: In showing the capture of the American Embassy in Tehran, Ben Affleck first made a fetish of authenticity, then served up a shamelessly Hollywood (and wholly fictional) climax, then capped the whole thing off with a coda that was essentially a tribute to his movie's authenticity, complete with side-by-side photos of the actors and their near-identical real-life counterparts. Well done, sir! — David Edelstein

When I did Ben 10, I really didn't know anything about Ben 10. But when I went back to visit my son Pierre and told him what I'd just done, he said "You did a Ben 10?!?" and then he started yelling out to my grandson, "Luca, Luca, come here, Granddaddy did a Ben 10 show." You suddenly discover you're gratte-cul with a five-year-old, and that's pretty cool." — David McCallum

If the antisemites want to hate, let them hate, and let them go to hell. — David Ben-Gurion

When a Jew, in America or in South Africa, talks to his Jewish companions about 'our' government, he means the government of Israel. — David Ben-Gurion

Referring to Palestinian refugees: We must do everything in our power to ensure that they never return. — David Ben-Gurion

We must expel Arabs and take their places. — David Ben-Gurion

To shatter even the largest stones on earth, it takes only a small quantity of explosive powder. — David Ben-Gurion

If I was an Arab leader I would never make [peace] with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. — David Ben-Gurion

The law is whatever people determine it to be. — David Ben-Gurion

For The Rest Of My Life I Will Thank And Praise You Lord. You Have Pulled Me Out Of Darkness And Despair. Like My Forefather David ... I Hold Onto Your Promises. I am Blessed By You ... Each And Everyday. For As Long As The Sun Will Shine ... I Will Give You Thanks For Your Love And Kindness. I Will Serve And Praise You For The Rest Of My Days. — Timothy Pina

After eighty, there are no enemies, only survivors. — David Ben-Gurion

In the midst of wanton aggression, we still call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions - provisional or permanent. — David Ben-Gurion

You must talk to us as equals, or not talk to us at all. — David Ben-Gurion

What matters is not what the goyim say, but what the Jews do. — David Ben-Gurion

Ben had never seen his mother cry before, and it startled him, so he didn't ask again. Right afterward she'd put on her favorite record and played a mysterious song called "Space Oddity," about an astronaut named Major Tom who gets lost in space. She used to listen to the song over and over again. With her eyes closed, she'd place the palm of her hand against the fabric of the speaker, so she could feel it vibrate against her skin. — Brian Selznick

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. — David Ben-Gurion

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence. — David Ben-Gurion

Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared. — David Ben-Gurion

Ben remembered that in Italy, he and Rachel had slipped down between rows of apple trees on the plain of the Po, deep into the cool and dark of orchards, and there they had kissed with the sadness of newlyweds who know that their kisses are too poignantly tender and that their good fortune is subject, like all things, to the crush of time, which remorselessly obliterates what is most desired and pervades all that is beautiful. — David Guterson

I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say that I've read very little of David Foster Wallace's work. It's a huge gap in my education, one of many. — Ben Fountain

I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that? — David Ben-Gurion

A homeland is not gotten as a gift; it is not acquired by privilege or political contracts, it is not bought with gold or held by force. No, it is made with the sweat of the brow; it is the historic creation and collective enterprise of the people, the fruit of its people's labor bodily, spiritually, morally over the span of generations. — David Ben Gourion

The solution Ben Ginsberg hit upon was to use the Voting Rights Act's provisions governing majority-minority districts to create African American seats in Southern states. Work closely with minority groups to encourage candidates to run. Then pack as many Democratic voters as possible inside the lines, bleaching the surrounding districts whiter and more Republican, thus resegregating congressional representation while increasing the number of African Americans in Congress. The strategy became known as the unholy alliance, because it benefited black leaders and Republicans at the expense of the Democratic Party. Ginsberg had another name for it when a reporter asked him to describe it: Project Ratfuck. The — David Daley

Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves ... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country. — David Ben-Gurion

I'm the drummer for Stage Dive." Mat set the crazily expensive camera on the seat beside him. "You can't order me around, child bride."
"It's so cute that you think that's still funny, calling me child bride." From her back jean pocket, Ev pulled out her cell. "Am I calling Anne to tattle on you for refusing to give Jimmy and Lena some privacy or not?"
"You wouldn't dare."
Her fingers moved across the screen. "Oh, I think I would."
David and Ben chuckled in ther manly way, but did as told and went back into the recording studio. They clearly weren't messing with the girl.
A second later, Mal followed. "I do not like you women all being friends. This is not okay."
"And you should tell your grilfriend all about it when you see her tonight. I'd love to know what she says." With a final wave, Ev followed him back inside the mixing room or whatever it was called. — Kylie Scott

Under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them. Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement, should we offer to buy his land, at an appropriate price. — David Ben-Gurion

We must do everything to insure they [the Palestinians] never do return ... The old will die and the young will forget. — David Ben-Gurion

The most dangerous enemy to Israel's security is the intellectual inertia of those who are responsible for security. — David Ben-Gurion

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. — David Ben-Gurion

Baseball may be our national pastime, but the age-old tradition of taking a swing at Congress is a sport with even deeper historical roots in the American experience. Since the founding of our country, citizens from Ben Franklin to David Letterman have made fun of their elected officials. — Evan Bayh

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism. — David Ben-Gurion

A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its southern border on the Litani river. We will make an alliance with it. When we smash the Arab Legion's strength and bomb Amman, we will eliminate Transjordan too, and then Syria will fall. If Egypt still dares to fight on, we shall bomb Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo ... And in this fashion, we will end the war and settle our forefathers' account with Egypt, Assyria, and Aram. — David Ben-Gurion

Today the ministry of culture is the ministry of defense. A hundred thousand Jews are fighting for their people's freedom - that is the greatest human creation in our era. It will serve as a source for literature and art for generations to come. [Answering question, why the government had not set up a ministry of culture] — David Ben-Gurion

We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population. — David Ben-Gurion

What changes when a woman marries? What does a woman lose and what does she gain? For Abishag, marrying king David gave her instant status. As a wife, impugning Abishag's character meant a swift death. As a wife, she inspired fear.
What changes when a woman is widowed? For Abishag, it meant foreign women came to Jerusalem to marry Solomon
and she was relegated to that of a spectator. In Abishag's widowhood, none feared her.
pg 17 — Michael Ben Zehabe

We consider that the United Nations' ideal is a Jewish ideal. — David Ben-Gurion

No city in the world, not even Athens or Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people. — David Ben-Gurion

He had visited his family the evening before, eaten dinner with Renee and Chris, his grandson, in the pretence that everything was ordinary, but in fact to service his end-game ruse. He was going over the mountains, he'd said, to hunt for quail in willow canyons, he had no particular canyons in mind, he intended to return on Thursday evening, though possibly, if the hunting was good, he would return on Friday or Saturday. The lie was open-ended so that his family wouldn't start worrying until he'd been dead for as long as a week - so none would miss or seek him where he rotted silently in the sage. Ben imagined how it might be otherwise, his cancer a pestilent force in their lives, or a pall descending over them like ice, just as they'd begun to emerge from the pall of Rachel's death. The last thing they needed was for Ben to tell hem of his terminal colon cancer. — David Guterson

If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert. — David Ben-Gurion

At the same time we overlap, because, I do linguistics, and Ben did a first degree in Linguistics at Lancaster University, so he knows some of my subject. — David Crystal

I didn't plan to be a politician. The founder of our country, David Ben-Gurion, called me from the kibbutz to serve in the underground. We were short of manpower, short of arms. I was 24 years old. I was supposed to serve my country for one or two years. I am 89 years old this year, and I keep going. — Shimon Peres

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 million. — David Ben-Gurion

It is only in Hebrew that you feel the full meaning of it
all the associations which a different word has. — David Ben-Gurion

It's not enough to be up to date, you have to be up to tomorrow. — David Ben-Gurion

I saw David Lynch's 'The Elephant Man' when I was 15. I was completely bowled over. I found it so beautiful, strange and mesmerizing that I went back to the cinema every night for a week to see it. — Ben Daniels

Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist. — David Ben-Gurion

Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs. — David Ben-Gurion

Since I invoke Torah so often, let me state that I don't personally believe in the God it postulates ... I am not religious, nor were the majority of the early builders of Israel believers. Yet their passion for this land stemmed from the Book of Books ... [The Bible is] the single most important book in my life. — David Ben-Gurion

Those who today murdered our people in an ambush not only plotted to murder some Jews but intended to provoke us ... The Arabs stand to gain from such a development. They want the country to be in a state of perpetual pogrom ... Any further bloodshed [by the Jews] will only bring political advantage to the Arabs and harm us ... Our strength is in the defense ... and this strength will give us political victory if England and the world will know that we are defending ourselves rather than attacking. — David Ben-Gurion

Israel's economic and cultural progress is due to three things: the pioneering spirit that inspires the best of our immigrant and Israeli youth, who respond to the challenge of our desolute areas and the ingathering of the exiles; the feeling of Diaspora Jewry that they are partners in the enterprise of Israel's resurgence in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people; and the power of science, and technology which Israel unceasingly, and not without success, tries to enhance. — David Ben-Gurion

If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, then I opt for the second alternative. — David Ben-Gurion

It's not a matter of maintaining the status quo. We have to create a dynamic state, oriented towards expansion. — David Ben-Gurion

We offer peace and neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Hebrew nation for the common good of all. — David Ben-Gurion

Truth Is As Plan As The Inspired Words David Wrote In The Psalms: A future Awaits For All Those Who Seek Peace..But All EVIL Will Eventually Be Destroyed; There Will Be No Future For The Wicked. — Timothy Pina

We don't consider manual work as a curse, or a bitter necessity, not even as a means of making a living. We consider it as a high human function, as the basis of human life, the most dignified thing in the life of the human being, and which ought to be free, creative. Men ought to be proud of it. — David Ben-Gurion

Ben Belkassem had boned up on the alpha-synths after DeVries stole this ship. Too much was classified for him to learn as much as he would have liked, but he'd learned enough to know her augmentation didn't include the normal alpha-synth com link. Without it, the AI should have been forced to communicate back by voice, not some sort of ... of telepathy!
Yet he was beyond surprise where DeVries was concerned. After all, she'd survived multiple disrupter hits with no more than a few minor burns, killed eleven men saving his own highly-trained self, taken out a few ground-to-space weapon emplacements, escaped through the heart of Wyvern's very respectable fortifications, and polished off a destroyer as an encore. As far as he was concerned, she could do anything she damned well liked. — David Weber

If you really want to be totally accurate about it, the day that really changed Abby's life wasn't the day she discovered her power.
It was the day Ben sang to her in the Telekinesis lab. — David Pogue

It hasn't been a problem with Ben, I think we worked together very well, we don't have rows. — David Crystal

Which are you first, a Jew or an American? A Jew. — David Ben-Gurion

We do not want to create a situation like that which exists in South Africa, where the whites are the owners and rulers, and the blacks are the workers. If we do not do all kinds of work, easy and hard, skilled and unskilled, if we become merely landlords, then this will not be our homeland — David Ben-Gurion

To be realistic, you have to believe in miracles. — David Ben-Gurion

Now he laughs for real, cackling with the wicked innocence of the bright and easily bored. Staff Sergeant David Dime is a twenty-four-year-old college dropout from North Carolina who subscribes to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Maxim, Wired, Harper's, Fortune, and DicE Magazine, all of which he reads in addition to three or four books a week, mostly used textbooks on history and politics that his insanely hot sister sends from Chapel Hill. There are stories that he went to college on a golf scholarship, which he denies. That he was a star quarterback in high school, which he claims not to remember, though one day a football surfaced at FOB Viper, and Dime, caught up in the moment, perhaps, nostalgia triggering some long-dormant muscle memory, uncorked a sixty-yard spiral that sailed over Day's head into the base motor pool. — Ben Fountain

The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill: from the Nile to the Euphrates. — David Ben-Gurion

The State of Israel will prove itself not by material wealth, not by military might or technical achievement, but by its moral character and human values. — David Ben-Gurion

Thought is a strenuous art - few practice it, and then only at rare times. — David Ben-Gurion

We will make a great and awful mistake if we fail to settle Hebron, neighbor and predecessor of Jerusalem, with a large Jewish settlement, constantly growing and expanding, very soon. This will also be a blessing to the Arab neighbors. Hebron is worthy to be Jerusalem's sister. — David Ben-Gurion

'I Just Might Pray' by The David Mayfield Parade has an upbeat tempo without being sugary sweet. 'I Just Might Pray' is an enjoyable track and is easily listened to. As a side note, the video for 'I Just Might Pray' is absolutely adorable. — Ben Lovett

To erroneously assert that the unclaimed Shunemite does not treasure the opportunity misses the entire point of this superlative song. She wants to leave with Solomon. This earthly Shunemite would be willing to die to be with Solomon
but until she develops skills of value to his kingdom
she will remain unclaimed.
pg 10 — Michael Ben Zehabe

The trebling of the population in this small and impoverished country, flowing with milk and honey but not with sufficient water, rich in rocks and sand dunes but poor in natural resources and vital raw materials, has been no easy task: Indeed, practical men, with their eyes fixed upon things as they are, regarded it as an empty and insubstantial utopian dream. — David Ben-Gurion

Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan were self-proclaimed atheists. — Tariq Ali

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

Not the absorption capacity of the land, but the creative ability of a people, is the true yardstick with which we can measure the immigration potentialities of the land. — David Ben-Gurion

Israel will not discuss a peace involving the concession of any piece of territory. The neighboring states do not deserve an inch of Israel's land ... We are ready for exchange for peace. — David Ben-Gurion

We regard it as our duty to declare that Jewish Jerusalem is an organic and inseparable part of the State of Israel, as it is an inseparable part of the history of Israel, of the faith of Israel. — David Ben-Gurion

We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai. — David Ben-Gurion

A Jew is anyone who says he is. — David Ben-Gurion

The Arabs of the land of Israel [ Palestinians] have only one functionleft to them
to run away. — David Ben-Gurion

In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles. — David Ben-Gurion

The past is our very being. — David Ben-Gurion

A partial Jewish State is not the end, but only the beginning ... I am certain that we well not be prevented from settling in the other parts of the country, either by mutual agreements with our Arab neighbors or by some other means ... [If the Arabs refuse] we shall have to speak to them in another language. But we shall only have another language if we have a state. — David Ben-Gurion

The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war. — David Ben-Gurion

This life as a simple citizen and laborer has its benefits not only for the person himself but perhaps also for his country. After all, there is room for only one Prime Minister, but for those who make the desert bloom there is room for hundreds, thousands and even millions. And the destiny of the state is in the hands of the many rather than of a single individual. There are times when an individual feels he should do those things which only can and should be done by the many. — David Ben-Gurion

Suffering makes a people greater, and we have suffered much. We had a message to give the world, but we were overwhelmed, and the message was cut off in the middle. In time there will be millions of us - becoming stronger and stronger - and we will complete the message. — David Ben-Gurion

From Jewish terrorism against Arabs it is a short step to Jewish terrorism against Jews. — David Ben-Gurion