Abba Eban Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

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

by:	Abba Eban [Aubrey Solomon Meir] (1915-2002) Israeli diplomat and politician
Source:	Speech in London, 16 December 1970
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Categories:	Freedom, Justice, Society, Tolerance, Truth, War
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Reader comments about this quote:

I liked this guy. I don't why but I always felt hat he was well maybe a small great spirit. Here he is paraphrasing "Necessity is the mother of invention." The issue is some have a different idea of what is necessary or when it is necessary. As a cynic friend of mine told me, "Nature will take care of all of our problems of global warming, overpopulation etcetera." When questioned he said he meant that "nature will kill us and starve us back to reasonableness and responsibility." Why should intelligent beings live cynically? The fact that they do is probably proof that they are not intelligent at all. -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
Unfortunately true but shouldn't be so. We are so dumb nature will kill us period no maybe -- RobertSRQ
Kinda with RobertSRQ on this one. -- Mike, Norwalk
Good humor has to have a touch of truth in order to be good humor. -- warren, olathe
Social Darwinism in action. -- Ken, Allyn, WA
For the most part, men and nations are more interested in power than wisdom. -- E Archer, NYC
Actions are based on current information that is typically too inadequate to appear wise in retrospect. Give us a break. We cannot see the future. -- Joe, Milwaukee