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A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.

Abba Eban

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Abba Eban
Age: 87 †
Born: 1915
Born: February 2
Died: 2002
Died: November 17
Diplomat
Historian
Politician
Writer
Cape Town
South Africa
Aba Eban
Abba Even
Abba Eben
Aubrey Solomon Meir
Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban
Aubrey Eban
Nation
Justice
Nations
History
Writes
Culture
Ideal
Writing
Diversity
Ideals
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More quotes by Abba Eban

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His ignorance is encyclopedic.
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Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.
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Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man's initiative.
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It [idolatry] nourishes mans ambition to domineer over his fellow man. Idolatry, therefore, is the source of all social and moral evil in the world.
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Zionism is nothing more, but also nothing less, than the Jewish People's sense of origin and destination in the Land linked eternally with its name. It is also the instrument whereby the Jewish Nation seeks an authentic fulfillment of itself.
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Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
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It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
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History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
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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
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A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
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A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.
Abba Eban
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Better to be disliked than pitied.
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Playing the game I have learned the meaning of humility. It has given me an understanding of futility of the human effort.
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Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
Abba Eban
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Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives
Abba Eban
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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
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The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe their minorities, whoever they might be.
Abba Eban
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You can't achieve anything without getting in someone's way. You can't be detached and effective.
Abba Eban
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Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
Abba Eban
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Israel is not an aviary.
Abba Eban