ប្រវត្តិសាស្រ្តបិទមុខ

Meir was born Golda Mabovitch (Ukrainian: Голда Мабович) in Kiev in the Russian Empire (today Ukraine) to Blume Naidich and Moshe Mabovitch, a carpenter. Golda wrote in her autobiography that her earliest memories were of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumors of an imminent pogrom. She had two sisters, Sheyna and Tzipke. Five other siblings died in childhood. Golda was especially close to Sheyna. Moshe Mabovitch left for the United States in 1903, and the family followed in 1906.[5]

The family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where her father found a job as a carpenter, and her mother ran a grocery store. At the age of eight, she was already put in charge of watching the store when her mother went to the market for supplies.

Golda attended the Fourth Street School (now Golda Meir School) from 1906 to 1912. A leader early on, Golda organized a fundraiser to pay for her classmates’ textbooks. After forming the American Young Sisters Society, she rented a hall and scheduled a public meeting for the event. When she began school, she did not know English, but she graduated as valedictorian of her class.

Golda in Milwaukee, 1914At 14, she went to North Division High School and worked part-time. Her mother wanted her to leave school and marry, but she rebelled. She bought a train ticket to Denver, Colorado, and went to live with her married sister, Sheyna Korngold. The Korngolds held intellectual evenings at their home where Meir was exposed to debates on Zionism, literature, women’s suffrage, trade unionism and more. In her autobiography, she wrote: "To the extent that my own future convictions were shaped and given form... those talk-filled nights in Denver played a considerable role." In Denver, she also met Morris Meyerson, a sign painter, whom she later married at the age of 19.[6]

A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
Golda Meir

Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.
Golda Meir

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.
Golda Meir

As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.
Golda Meir

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.
Golda Meir

Being seventy is not a sin.
Golda Meir

Don't be humble... you're not that great.
Golda Meir

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.
Golda Meir

Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.
Golda Meir

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.
Golda Meir

I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.
Golda Meir

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.
Golda Meir

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.
Golda Meir

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.
Golda Meir

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.
Golda Meir

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!
Golda Meir

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.
Golda Meir

Moses dragged us for 40 years through the desert to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil.
Golda Meir

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.
Golda Meir

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.
Golda Meir

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.
Golda Meir

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.
Golda Meir

The dog that trots about finds a bone.
Golda Meir

The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.
Golda Meir

The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with.
Golda Meir

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.
Golda Meir

There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.
Golda Meir

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.
Golda Meir

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.
Golda Meir

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.
Golda Meir

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.
Golda Meir

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.
Golda Meir

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

We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.
Golda Meir

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative.
Golda Meir

We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.
Golda Meir

Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.
Golda Meir

Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.
Golda Meir

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.
Golda Meir