Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.

A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.

Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.

It [idolatry] nourishes mans ambition to domineer over his fellow man. Idolatry, therefore, is the source of all social and moral evil in the world.

Our intention to regard the closing of the Straits as a casus belli was communicated...to the foreign ministers of those states which had supported international navigation in the Straits in 1957 and thereafter. There can be no doubt that these warnings reached Cairo. One thing was now clear. If Nasser imposed a blockade, the explosion would ensue not from 'miscalculation', but from an open-eyed and conscious readiness for war.

Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.