Ruth Westheimer

“Why should only rich men have young, beautiful women? Rich women should have young, beautiful men.”

“I was already 50 when I started in television.”

“My parents sent me to Switzerland on a Kindertransport.”

“When I was in Switzerland, I still had the fantasy I could have saved my parents and family if I'd stayed in Germany. All nonsense. If they had not made the sacrifice to send their only child to Switzerland, I wouldn't be alive.”

“I don't let people call me before 9 A.M.”

“Now were it up to me, I would abolish all warfare.”

“When the first armies were formed, combat took courage, which women share equally with men, and strength, which we do not. But though I am only 4 feet 7 inches tall, with a gun in my hand I am the equal of a soldier who's 6 feet 7 - perhaps even at a slight advantage, as I make a smaller target.”

“I hear you younger people saying how many friends they have on the Internet. That's nonsense. That's not friends, that's acquaintances. The word 'friendship' has lost its significance.”

“My father taught me to study, study, study hard and he sent me to a very good Jewish school even though it was not near the house.”

“Before I became an orphan of the Holocaust my early family life was stable. I grew up as a German Jew in Frankfurt, and I was in a household with two loving parents and an adoring grandmother who spoiled me. My mother helped my father in their wholesale business and they went to synagogue every Friday.”

“When you feel yourself being critical, whether it is of yourself or another person, stop yourself. Look for positive aspects to admire.”

“I once went with my grandson to a county fair where you shoot a water pistol at the clown's mouth. We came home with twelve stuffed animals and a goldfish.”

“In 1947 and '48, everybody in then-Palestine belonged to some group. I chose the group that was the forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces.”

“When I came to this country, people told me that if I wanted to teach and work here, I would have to take speech lessons to lose my accent. But it helped me greatly, because when people turned on the radio, they knew it was me.”

“At the age of 16 I immigrated to Palestine from Europe, where I became a member of the Haganah, the main underground army of the Jews.”

“I'm a Zionist who believes that every person has to have a country of their own.”

“The early socialization of a child is crucial.”

“עשו לנו קצת אימוני ירי ואז שלחו אותי למטווח ונתנו לי רובה ארוך כמעט כמוני.”

“שימוש הולם בפנטזיות הוא דרך אחת ליהנות קצת יותר מהחיים.”

“כי בלי החיוניות של האהבה, החיים חיוורים מאוד.”