39 Quotes by Abba Eban

Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.

Better to be disliked than pitied.

Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man's initiative.

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

Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives

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.

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.

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]

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