Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Men
Routine
Impulsive
Governments
Lest
Suffer
Arab
Miss
Suggest
Tragedy
Tempted
Missing
Rush
Suffering
Sheer
Government
Rejection

More quotes by Abba Eban

Image
Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
Abba Eban
Image
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
Abba Eban
Image
Better to be disliked than pitied.
Abba Eban
Image
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
Abba Eban
Image
A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
Abba Eban
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.
Abba Eban
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Playing the game I have learned the meaning of humility. It has given me an understanding of futility of the human effort.
Abba Eban
Image
A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
Abba Eban
Image
His ignorance is encyclopedic.
Abba Eban
Image
A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.
Abba Eban
Image
You can't achieve anything without getting in someone's way. You can't be detached and effective.
Abba Eban
Image
Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
Abba Eban
Image
Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives
Abba Eban
Image
Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man's initiative.
Abba Eban
Image
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.
Abba Eban
Image
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