Quotes Library

March 25, 2025

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

Abba Eban (1915–2002), Israeli diplomat and politician, speech in London, 16 December 1970, Jay p.127

Can you think of an instance where you wasted a lot of time considering, promoting, or pursuing an alternative when the wisest solution was staring you in the face? Why were you blind to it?

So wisdom is the default position? That’s a consolation, until one realizes the legion of wrong alternatives yet to be exhausted in so many cases.


More Quotes

February 26, 2025
[On Winston Churchill] Restless, almost intolerably so, without capacity for sustained and unexcited labour, egotistical,
June 25, 2025
Sometimes, when they say you’re ahead of your time, it’s just a polite way of saying you have a real bad sense of timing.
December 8, 2025
Political skill [is] the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year.
Page 29 of 122