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.
A
Abba Eban
Profession:
Unknown
Born:
February 2, 1915
Nationality:
Israeli
Quotes by Abba Eban
Showing all 15 quotes
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.
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Abba Eban
His ignorance is encyclopedic.
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Abba Eban
A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
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Abba Eban
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
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Abba Eban
Better to be disliked than pitied.
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Abba Eban
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.
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Abba Eban
Time and again these governments have rejected proposals today - and longed for them tomorrow.
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Abba Eban
The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe their minorities, whoever they might be.
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Abba Eban
Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
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Abba Eban
You can't achieve anything without getting in someone's way.
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Abba Eban
A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.
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Abba Eban
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.
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Abba Eban
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
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Abba Eban
Men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all the other alternatives.
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Abba Eban