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The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.

David Ben-Gurion

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David Ben-Gurion
Age: 87 †
Born: 1886
Born: October 16
Died: 1973
Died: December 1
Politician
Statesman
Trade Unionist
Dominion of Canada
David Grün
Ben-Gurion
Democracy
Freedom
Censorship
Feminism
Test
Tests
Criticism

More quotes by David Ben-Gurion

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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
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You must talk to us as equals, or not talk to us at all.
David Ben-Gurion
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Referring to Palestinian refugees: We must do everything in our power to ensure that they never return.
David Ben-Gurion
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The old will die and the young will forget.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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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
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It's not a matter of maintaining the status quo. We have to create a dynamic state, oriented towards expansion.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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It is only in Hebrew that you feel the full meaning of it -- all the associations which a different word has.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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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
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It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested.
David Ben-Gurion
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After eighty, there are no enemies, only survivors.
David Ben-Gurion
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To shatter even the largest stones on earth, it takes only a small quantity of explosive powder.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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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
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Courage is... 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
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If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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From Jewish terrorism against Arabs it is a short step to Jewish terrorism against Jews.
David Ben-Gurion