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Who really said it

Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist

Not Audrey Hepburn — actually David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion 1886–1973 · Zionist statesman & first Prime Minister of Israel
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Audrey Hepburn never said this. The thought is David Ben-Gurion’s, spoken about the founding of Israel. Wikiquote documents it as “With us, anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist” (attributed to him in Roman Frister, Israel: Years of Crisis, Years of Hope, 1973, p. 45); a reputed variant, “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles,” is credited to a CBS interview of 5 October 1956 ↗ that Wikiquote flags as unverified. The smoothed, context-free wording popular online is a later paraphrase.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist” Misattributed to Audrey Hepburn. Actually David Ben-Gurion: "With us, anyone who doesn't believe in miracles isn't a realist." — attributed in Roman Frister, Israel: Years of Crisis, Years of Hope (1973), p. 45.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Audrey Hepburn. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of David Ben-Gurion — Zionist statesman & first Prime Minister of Israel. Theme: "Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The real source

Speaker
David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973)
Documented form
“With us, anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist”
Documented in
Attributed to Ben-Gurion in R. Frister, Israel: Years of Crisis, Years of Hope (1973), p. 45
Reputed variant
“In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles” — credited to a CBS interview of 5 October 1956, though Wikiquote flags that citation as unverified

In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.

The popular “Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles is not a realist” strips away Ben-Gurion’s specific reference to Israel; that exact wording appears attributed to him in Charles A. Garfield’s Psychosocial Care of the Dying Patient (1978).

David Ben-Gurion on Wikiquote (sourced)

How we verified this

  • Wikiquote files the line under Audrey Hepburn’s Misattributed section ↗, crediting it instead to David Ben-Gurion.
  • The David Ben-Gurion page ↗ sources “With us, anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist” to Roman Frister’s 1973 book Israel: Years of Crisis, Years of Hope (p. 45), and marks the 1956 CBS-interview variant ‘not in citation given’ (i.e. unverified).
  • Goodreads carries the exact line under Ben-Gurion’s name with a ‘misattributed-audrey-hepburn’ tag ↗.

The idea is firmly David Ben-Gurion’s, attributed to him in a 1973 book on Israel (with a reputed but unverified 1956 CBS-interview variant) — but the exact wording that circulates under Hepburn’s name is a smoothed paraphrase with no single canonical first-publication, so no clean copyright status can be asserted for it.

Fact-check

How Audrey Hepburn got the credit

This is a classic feel-good misattribution: an inspirational one-liner pinned to a beloved star it has nothing to do with. The words are David Ben-Gurion’s, spoken about the improbable survival of the state of Israel.

Audrey Hepburn misattributed

Quote sites, memes and jewelry blogs routinely stamp the line on Hepburn’s image, but Wikiquote places it in her Misattributed section ↗ with no source from her lifetime.

David Ben-Gurion true origin

The founding Prime Minister of Israel said it of his young country — “With us, anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist” — as attributed to him in a 1973 book on Israel ↗ (a reputed 1956 CBS-interview variant is unverified).

The line is David Ben-Gurion’s reflection on Israel, not Audrey Hepburn’s — documented in a 1973 book on Israel ↗ (a reputed 1956 CBS-interview variant is unverified), and absent from anything Hepburn is known to have said.

Context

Why he said it

Ben-Gurion’s line is not a greeting-card sentiment about optimism — it is a hard-nosed political observation. He was describing a state that came into being against enormous odds and had to keep defying them to endure. For him, treating the miraculous as a normal working assumption was realism.

Stripped of “In Israel” and re-captioned over a photograph of Audrey Hepburn, the sentence becomes a soft inspirational platitude — which is exactly how it now spreads, and exactly why the original meaning is lost.

In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Hope

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Audrey Hepburn — Misattributed (Wikiquote)en.wikiquote.org

Lists this line among quotes wrongly credited to Hepburn and points to Ben-Gurion.
David Ben-Gurion (Wikiquote)en.wikiquote.org

Sourced entry for the miracles/realist line, with the 1973 book citation and an unverified 1956 CBS variant.
Goodreads quote pagegoodreads.com

Carries the line under Ben-Gurion with a 'misattributed-audrey-hepburn' community tag.
LibQuotes — Ben-Gurionlibquotes.com

Attributes the realist/miracles line to Ben-Gurion's 5 October 1956 CBS interview — a derivative aggregator that inherits Wikiquote's unverified CBS citation, not independent corroboration.

The author

About David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion

1886–1973 · Zionist statesman & first Prime Minister of Israel

David Ben-Gurion led the Zionist movement in Mandatory Palestine and, on 14 May 1948, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, becoming its first prime minister and defense minister. He guided the new state through the 1948 war and its early nation-building years. His remark that Israelis must believe in miracles to be realists captured his sense of the country’s improbable birth and survival.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Documented source

David Ben-Gurion, attributed in Roman Frister, Israel: Years of Crisis, Years of Hope (1973), p. 45 (“With us, anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist”); a variant reputedly from a CBS interview of 5 October 1956 is unverified. Exact wording “Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles is not a realist” attributed to Ben-Gurion in Charles A. Garfield, Psychosocial Care of the Dying Patient (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/anyone-who-doesnt-believe-in-miracles-is-not-a-realist

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