Theodor Herzl

At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.

Theodor Herzl (May 2, 1860 – July 3, 1904) was an Austrian Jewish journalist who became the founder of modern political Zionism. His Hebrew personal name was Binyamin Ze'ev.

Quotes

• When we sink, we become a revolutionary proletariat, the subordinate officers of all revolutionary parties; and at the same time, when we rise, there rises also our terrible power of the purse.
  • Der Judenstaat (1896).

• Realists are, as a rule, only men in the rut of routine who are incapable of transcending a narrow circle of antiquated notions.
  • Der Judenstaat (1896).

• Some people do not understand us correctly and believe that the goal of our effort is to return to our land. Our ideal is going forwards then that - our ideal is the vision of the Great eternal truth; it is an ideal that always goes forward; it is an ideal that never ends, it is always growing, so that every step forward that we take, our horizon keep going ahead of us, and in perspective we see before us the purpose that is greater and more noble, which we’ll try to put our selves towards.
  • From: Zionism - an ideal that never ends - speech, 26 June 1899. ^{[specific citation needed]}

• אִם תִּרְצוּ, אֵין זוֹ אַגָדָה
  • Im tirtzu, ein zo agada
  • Wenn ihr wollt, ist es kein Märchen (Herzl wrote it in German)
  • If you will it, it is no dream.
  • Altneuland [Old, New Land] (1902).

• Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word — which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly — it would be this: At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.
  • Diary entry (3 September 1897), a few days after the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, as quoted in'Nonstate Nations in International Politics: Comparative System Analyses (1977) by Judy S. Bertelsen, p. 37
  • Variant translation: Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a few words — which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly — it would be this: At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, everyone will realize it.
    • As quoted in The Jewish Question: Biography of a World Problem (1990) by Alex Bein.

• In reference to the area of the Jewish state: From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.
  • As quoted in Complete Diaries by Theodor Herzl, Volume II, page 711.

Dream and deed are not as different as many think. All the deeds of men are dreams at first, and become dreams in the end.

• Dream and deed are not as different as many think. All the deeds of men are dreams at first, and become dreams in the end.
  • As quoted in The Israelis : Founders and Sons (1971) by Amos Elon, p. 57.

The Diaries of Theodor Herzl (1956)

The Diaries of Theodor Herzl as edited and translated by Marvin Lowenthal (Dial Press, New York, 1956).

• In Paris... I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to "combat" anti-Semitism.
  • In reaction to the Dreyfus affair.