Golda Meir

Meir (1898-1978), born in Kiev, Russia, was a founder of the state of Israel and served as its labor minister, foreign minister, and then prime minister from 1969-1974. While in office she strove for diplomatic settlements to arab/israeli conflicts.

1. It's no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? ... Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either.

2. You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

3. I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

4. Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil! - New York Times, 6//10/73

5. We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel.

6. Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard ther's nothing you can do.

7. A leader who does not hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Norman Vincent Peale

A Methodist minister, Peal, born in Bowersville, Ohio, made effective use of radio, television, and newspapers to promote his ideas and philosophy - perhaps best described in his best known book - The Power of Positive Thinking.

1. Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.

2. The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

3. Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them. - from The Power of Positive Thinking

4. There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

5. Believe you are defeated, believe it long enough, and it is likely to become a fact.

6. Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.

7. Your enthusiasm will be infectious, stimulating and attractive to others. They will love you for it. They will go for you and with you.

8. Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities -- always see them, for they're always there.

9. We tend to get what we expect.

10. Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.

11. We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.

Theodore Roosevelt

Soldier, explorer, conservationist, writer, New York Governor, and 26th US President, Roosevelt (1858-1919) was at the same time a realist and a romanticist. extended the powers of the US presidency, and established what later became the National Park system. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese war and promoting construction of the Panama Canal.

1. No man is above the law and no man below it.

2. Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

3. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

4. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

5. The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

6. In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

7. Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

8. I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.

9. No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.

10. No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his life in a great cause.