Quotes from Martin Gilbert

We shall never shake ourselves clear from the debts of the past and break into a definitely larger period except by the energetic creation of new wealth.

Jews fled deep into the Sahara and lived there among the Berber tribes, some of whom they later converted to Judaism. Ironically, it was a Cyrenaican Jew, Mark–the St. Mark of the Gospels–who converted to Christianity and founded

At Joncherey, near the German-Swiss border, a French soldier, Corporal André Peugeot, was killed, the first French victim of a war that was to claim more than a million French lives.

throughout Ghazzan's Empire. Under his successor, Uljaytu Khan (1305–1316), Jews were forbidden to make their annual pilgrimage to the Tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel. This tomb, located in Kifl, a hundred miles south of Baghdad, was entrusted to the care of a Muslim. Soon the site was covered over by a mosque, from whose minaret the faithful of Islam were called forth to prayer.32

It is a real pleasure to me, who have known the difficulties of such things, to read of so great a success; and when that is due to a man for whom one has feelings of personal friendship, it adds to the happiness of life.

In the Fifth Century, Yemen adopted Judaism as its religion. King Ab Karib As'ad, the ruler of the Himyarite kingdom, introduced the change after converting to Judaism himself under the influence of Jews at his court. Many south Arabian converts to Judaism followed; Jewish rule in Yemen lasted almost a hundred years.

To be good is noble; to teach others how to be good is nobler, & no trouble.

British and Indian troops were sent in, and an Indian Cavalry guard escorted them to work. That evening there was a further disturbance, and one of the labourers, Mohamed Ahmed, knocked a British officer unconscious with a stick and seized his rifle and bayonet, before being overpowered by three other Egyptians. Twelve days later he was tried for 'a disturbance of a mutinous nature', found guilty and shot.

The Spanish dictator, General Franco–who was widely believed to be descended from Jews forcibly converted to Christianity in the Fifteenth Century–allowed the emigrants unimpeded transit. Ships crowded with Moroccan Jews travelled again and again, under cover of darkness, from Atlantic and Mediterranean ports in North Africa to France.

Between 1956 and 1961 more than 35,000 Moroccan Jews left clandestinely for Israel under the auspices of the Mossad. In 1960, the same year that he masterminded the capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, Isser Harel, travelled to Morocco as a tourist. His visit there convinced him that manyJews wished to leave, and he appointed Alex Gatmon to be in charge of the Mossad operations in Morocco, under Ephraim Ronel in Paris.

If I had two lives I would be a soldier and a politician. But as there will be no war in my time I shall have to be a politician.

Albert Einstein wrote from Berlin to the French writer and pacifist, Romain Rolland: 'When posterity recounts the achievements of Europe, shall we let men say that three centuries of painstaking cultural effort carried us no farther than from religious fanaticism to the insanity of nationalism? In both camps today even scholars behave as though eight months ago they suddenly lost their heads.' ***

A democracia é mais vingativa do que os governos. As guerras entre os povos serão mais terríveis do que as guerras entre os reis".

national compulsory insurance for all classes for all purposes from the cradle to the grave'.

It was to be one of the most fateful days of his life.

Madam, At the conclusion of the first decade of your Reign, I would like to express to Your Majesty my fervent hopes and wishes for many happy years to come. It is with pride that I recall that I was your Prime Minister at the inception of these ten years of devoted service to our country.

Churchill's work took him to the scenes of Marlborough's battles, including Blenheim, in Bavaria. It was a Jew, Solomon de Medina, the first practising Jew in England to receive a knighthood, who was Marlborough's chief army contractor during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) supplying Marlborough with money, provisions and military intelligence.

In such times one realises to what a sad species of animal one belongs.

A campanha pelo direito de voto das mulheres era, contudo, "um movimento ridículo". O voto para as mulheres devia ser evitado. "Uma vez que se conceda o voto a um grande número de mulheres, que constituem a maior parte da sociedade", advertiu ele, "todo o poder passará para as mãos delas".

nas fronteiras, a resistência finlandesa era impressionante. Pequenas unidades militares conseguiam deslocar-se rapidamente em bicicletas ou esquis pelos estreitos caminhos florestais. Os defensores lançavam garrafas cheias de gasolina, com um trapo incendiado no gargalo, dentro dos tanques soviéticos: essa bomba incendiária tão simples, mas com efeito tão eficazmente devastador, em breve recebeu o nome de "coquetel Molotov Ã¢â'¬Â.

Muslim Caliph or Sultan. 29 Claudia Roden, The Book of Jewish Food, page 185.

My life has been a pleasant one and though I should regret to leave it, it would be a regret that perhaps I should never know.

We must learn to draw from misfortune the means of future strength.

Within seven months, more than 600,000 Armenians were massacred. Of the 500,000 deported during that same period, more than 400,000 perished as a result of the brutalities and privations of the southward march into Syria and Mesopotamia. By September as many as a million Armenians were dead, the victims of what later became known as genocide, later still as ethnic cleansing. A further 200,000 were forcibly converted to Islam.