WISDOM (1)

"We looked death straight in the face, and it lowered its eyes before us"
Shmuel Gonen ('Gorodish'), commander of the 7th Brigade in the 6-Day War



"If you can't face death you can run. But remember, if you run, you can't run just a mile. You must run a thousand miles."
Attributed to Haganah officers addressing recruits - from Israel there's nowhere to retreat to


"He would wake up with a hundred ideas. Of them ninety-five were dangerous; three more were bad; the remaining two, however, were brilliant."
Ariel Sharon [on Moshe Dayan]


"Courage is a special kind of knowledge; 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, 1st prime minister


"In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."
David Ben-Gurion, 1st prime minister


"Now you'll be able to aim better".
[Jocularly, while visiting a wounded soldier, who lost an eye]
Ezer Weizman, former Airforce commander and State President


interviewer Sam Donaldson: "But on Friday, you were very pessimistic. You said, 'No good,' when someone asked you how things were going."
PM Ehud Barak: "No, I'm saying even now, if I have to summarize the situation - in one word it's good, in two words, not good."
[an Israeli figure of speech]
Attribution: Interview with Prime Minister Ehud Barak on ABC News, September 10, 2000