The words of Shimon Peres have been used by people working in such diverse fields as politics, motivational speaking and software design.

Here are some of Mr Peres' most memorable quotes:

:: "A solution of two national states - a Jewish state, Israel; an Arab state, Palestine. The Palestinians are our closest neighbors. I believe they may become our closest friends." From a speech after he was presented America's Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in Washington DC, 13 June 2012.

Image: Shimon Peres receives the Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2012

:: "In Israel, a land lacking in natural resources, we learned to appreciate our greatest national advantage: our minds. Through creativity and innovation, we transformed barren deserts into flourishing fields and pioneered new frontiers in science and technology." From an Op Ed in the Los Angeles Times, following his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 18 June 2012.

:: "If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time." Attributed to Shimon Peres and quoted by the Wall Street Journal on 29 January 2001 as being among Rumsfeld's Rules, a code by which the former US Defense Secretary advised people working around the White House and in business to adhere to.


:: "It is no wonder that war, as a means of conducting human affairs, is in its death throes and that the time has come to bury it." From a speech to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994, drawing on his experience as a minister of defence in the 1970s when he had to oversee the recovery of the Israeli Defence Force from the Yom Kippur War and the disengagement of Israeli forces from the Egyptian front.

Image: Then defence minister Shimon Peres sits on a military helicopter flight in 1975 with then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and security adviser Ariel Sharon

:: "Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable." At a Davos meeting in January 1995, reported in the Financial Times, a month after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to develop the Oslo Accords, having been seen around the world appearing on platforms with the head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, who many regarded as a terrorist.

:: "The Middle East must never lose pride in having been the cradle of civilisation. But, though living in the cradle, we cannot remain infants forever." From a speech to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

:: "I was learning, as I did in the Ministry of Defense. I never knew, but I always learned." From in an interview with the Academy of Achievement in 2003, describing his first term as prime minister, in the 1980s, having been appointed head of the navy and defence minister at the age of 29 by David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel.

Image: Shimon Peres, as Prime Minister of Israel, discusses affairs with Egypt's then President Hosni Mubarak after an agreement about the Taba border

:: "The Jews' greatest contribution to history is dissatisfaction! We're a nation born to be discontented. Whatever exists we believe can be changed for the better." From Ben-Gurion: A Political Life, a biography of Israel's primary founder, Shimon Peres, in conversation with David Landau, 2011, and describing how Israel's primary founder emerged as the Jewish people coped with the period before and after the Second World War.

:: "The duty of leaders is to pursue freedom ceaselessly, even in the face of hostility, in the face of doubt and disappointment. Just imagine what could be." From a speech during a ceremony to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington DC in 2012.

:: "The Middle East is ailing. The malady stems from pervasive violence, shortages of food, water and educational opportunities, discrimination against women and - the most virulent cause of all - the absence of freedom." From an Op Ed in the Los Angeles Times in June 2012.

:: "When you have two alternatives, the first thing you have to do is to look for the third that you didn't think about, that doesn't exist." From in an interview with the Academy of Achievement in 2003, describing his approach as Prime Minister in the 1980s to tackling 500% inflation.