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Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.

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
Difference
Differences
Tragedy

More quotes by Abba Eban

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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.
Abba Eban
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Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
Abba Eban
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Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
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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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A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
Abba Eban
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History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
Abba Eban
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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.
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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Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man's initiative.
Abba Eban
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Better to be disliked than pitied.
Abba Eban
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His ignorance is encyclopedic.
Abba Eban
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I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.
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
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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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Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Abba Eban
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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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It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
Abba Eban
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A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
Abba Eban
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Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don’t worship it. Feed it. [Addressing a group of prospective contributors to an Israeli scientific research program]
Abba Eban