“To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.”

—  Golda Meir

When questioned on Israel's future, in The New York Times (12 December 1974)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update July 7, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be." by Golda Meir?
Golda Meir photo
Golda Meir 38
former prime minister of Israel 1898–1978

Related quotes

“You don’t learn unless you question.”

Warren Berger (1958) American writer

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas

John Ruskin photo

“You may either win your peace, or buy it, win it, by resistance to evil, buy it, by compromise with evil.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

The Work of Iron, in Nature, Art, and Policy http://books.google.com/books?id=uYEM0Sd18DsC&q="you+may+either+win+your+peace+or+buy+it%22+%22win+it+by+resistance+to+evil%22+%22buy+it+by+compromise+with+evil"&pg=PA196#v=onepage Lecture at Tunbridge Wells (February 16, 1858).

Byron Katie photo

“You either believe what you think or you question it. There’s no other choice.”

Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“There are questions which, once approached, either isolate you or kill you outright.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

Gwendolyn Brooks photo

“You don’t get all your questions answered in this world.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

"Song of Winnie"
Winnie (1988)
Context: My Poem is life, and not finished.
It shall never be finished.
My Poem is life, and can grow.

Wherever life can grow, it will.
It will sprout out,
and do the best it can.
I give you what I have.
You don’t get all your questions answered in this world.
How many answers shall be found
in the developing world of my Poem?
I don’t know. Nevertheless I put my Poem,
which is my life, into your hands, where it will do the best it can.

Laurie Halse Anderson photo

“The trick to surviving an interrogation is patience. Don’t offer up anything. Don’t explain. Answer the question and only the question that is asked so you don’t accidentally put your head in a noose.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Source: The Impossible Knife of Memory

Margaret Thatcher photo

“You never compromise with violence. You never compromise with intimidation. You never compromise by those who want to use those to extinguish freedom and democracy, because if you do then the very things for which you stand are extinguished.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

TV Interview for Channel 4 A Week in Politics (1 February 1985) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105955
Second term as Prime Minister

“Eat that money without compromising with them. If they come to bribe you, accept the money but don’t vote for them because you will be alone while voting. Do not fear because you will have committed no sin and God cannot be angry with you.”

Matthias Ssekamaanya (1936) Ugandan Roman Catholic bishop

Source: ‘Eat’ the money, but vote development, says bishop https://observer.ug/news-headlines/36415-eat-the-money-but-vote-development-says-bishop (February 18, 2015)

Jonathan Safran Foer photo

“There is nothing wrong with compromising, even if you are compromising almost everything.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 175

Related topics