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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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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
People
Ever
Israel
Done
Played
Great
Role
Even
City
Long
Nation
Athens
Time
Roles
Jerusalem
Life
Cities
Rome
World
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Jewish

More quotes by David Ben-Gurion

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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
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We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return
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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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
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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
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The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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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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Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.
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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After eighty, there are no enemies, only survivors.
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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If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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The old will die and the young will forget.
David Ben-Gurion
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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
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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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The most dangerous enemy to Israel's security is the intellectual inertia of those who are responsible for security.
David Ben-Gurion