It is no wonder that war, as a matter of conducting human affairs, is in its death throes and that the time has come to bury it. [Remarks on Acceptance of Nobel Peace Prize, December 10, 1994]
A Middle East where holiness will overcome oiliness...[Remarks to Fourth Business Forum Conference, Jerusalem, February 28, 1994]
After l00 years of terror there will not be another 100 years of terror but the beginning of 100 years of dialogue and good neighborliness. The entire nation will rally around the flag and the book of prayers, and all nations will march towards economic cooperation for the sake of the future of the entire region. [Knesset speech, August 30, l993]
Anyone who believes he can frustrate historical processes with butchers' knives or bullets fired from an ambush is deluding himself. The world is parting ways with the hunters of human prey. [Speech at Inauguration of Winter Session of the Knesset, October 11, 1993]
We are approaching the stage at which it will become clear that terror has no future and is fated to die. [Speech at Inauturation of Winter Session of the Knesset, October 11, 1993]
On the [White House] lawn, you could almost hear the heavy tread of boots leaving the stageafter a hundred years of hostility. You could have listened to the gentle tiptoeing of new steps making a debut in the awaiting world for peace. [Address to UN General Assembly, September 28, 1993]
I sense more and more how much we are outdated, not only regarding what will happen in the future, but even with regard to what is happening today, or has already happened. [Address to Zionist Executive, June 23, 1993]
Even if we do not yet know which way the scale of time is tipping and cannot assess the burgeoning spirit of unity, we must not ignore this historic world movement. In the not too distant past, history was a chain of military and political conflicts; today, international relationships based on economics are the dominant characteristic. [New Middle East, p. 96]
Particularist nationalism is fading and the idea of a 'citizen of the world' is taking hold. [New Middle East, p. 98]
Reality for us for me at any rate was not what objectively existed or happened; it was what was going to happen, what could still be shaped and fashioned by people. [Battling for Peace, p. 4]
I know it's hard to forget the past, but I invite all of you to raise your eyes and see what a different world we are living in...Only believers can be risk takers. Miracles are part of our reality. [Jewish Week, June 2, 1994]
[After Arafat coerced Hamas terrorist Mohammed Abu Warda to declare on TV that the suicide attacks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were committed to help the Likud] I wasn’t surprised. I had known this all along, but I did not want to fan the flames. Now the picture is complete. [Jerusalem Post International Edition, March 16, 1996]
{After the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv}
"No, nothing has changed with me"I continue to believe in Oslo. I continue to believe that there will be peace here. We are a quarter-hour before the peace, and that is the most dangerous quarter-hour." (NY Times
Newspaper..3/10).