Diplomats Quotes

We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.

In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known.

Diplomacy is to do and say, the nastiest thing in the nicest way.

All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.

The real secret about diplomats is that we're trained to say something, when there is nothing to say, and to say nothing when there is something to say.

The basic quality for the diplomat is not intelligence but loyalty.

Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts.

It's a necessary quality of a diplomat or a politician that he will compromise. Uncompromising politicians or diplomats get you into the most terrible trouble.

Michael Anthony is the Diplomat of Rock N Roll. He is the regular guy.

When a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. When he says perhaps, he means no. When he says no, he is not a diplomat. When a lady says no, she means perhaps. When she says perhaps, she means yes. But when she says yes, she is no lady.

Even when I was at CIA, I'd go to visit foreign leaders and I'd say, 'You know, I'm not a diplomat. I'm just an old CIA guy'... I said, 'If I wanted to be diplomatic, I'd have been a diplomat.'

American diplomacy is easy on the brain but hell on the feet.

I was never the diplomatic diplomat.

A diplomat these days is nothing but a head waiter who's allowed to sit down occasionally.

I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.

If a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. If he says perhaps he means no. And if he says no, he's the hell of a diplomat.

Diplomacy, of course, is a subtle and nuanced craft, so much so that it's said that when the most wily diplomat of the nineteenth-century passed away, other diplomats asked, on reports of his death, "What do you suppose the old fox meant by that?

a diplomat ... is not worthy of the name unless he can say 'no' and make the other person like it - or at least not be offended by it.

The only summit meeting that can succeed is one that does not take place.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat without having his neighbor notice it.

There are three species of creatures who when they seem coming are going, when they seem going they come: diplomats, women, and crabs.

Timing: The alpha and omega of aerialists, jugglers, actors, diplomats, publicists, generals, prizefighters, revolutionists, financiers, dictators, lovers.

Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died.

I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Métro.

Modern diplomats approach every problem with an open mouth.

Originally I wanted to be a diplomat, and by attrition I started giving up that idea.

God, a born extremist, is the diplomat's worst enemy. Quite apart from the fact that His decrees are irrevocable, the Absolute will not allow anyone to relativize matters.

A skilled diplomat rarely generates extreme reactions.

I have to be as much diplomat as a photographer.

I'd trained to be a diplomat but the state department said I was too liberal. I saw an ad in the New York Times ... a hack Californian editor came to New York to butcher some films and he needed an assistant. For some reason I read it that day and it changed my life. I went to work for him and he was horrible, butchering these masterpieces by Antonioni, Visconti, but I learned enough to know what he was doing wrong.

My first jam was at Hotel Diplomat opening for Hollywood.

My father was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. My grandfather had been in politics, too; however, my own inclination was for a job other than politics. I wanted to be a diplomat, perhaps do some journalism - certainly not politics.

A diplomat had been kidnapped, a cabinet minister had been kidnapped, they were under threats of murder. The police forces were rather tired. After a whole week, we were unable to find those that had effected the kidnappings.

Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts, and politicians violently denounce the politicians of other countries.

The sexual organs are the most sensitive organs of the human being. They are not diplomats. They tell the truth.

People also don't care about the daily comings and goings of diplomats and yet we must report it.

I discovered that a diplomat's life is largely entertaining and meeting people. At the end of the day there's nothing. So I gave up.

In the end, the work of diplomats continues even while others fight. So, it's not necessarily true that everyone needs to march.

If all the diplomats were kicked out, the UN could be turned into the finest bordello in the world and do just as much, if not more, for international harmony.

Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation. In their positive form, they become diplomats.

Can you imagine a writer in England influencing? Absolutely not. And in France? It used to be, but no more-absolutely not. France used to, at least, have writers as diplomats, but not any more.

The verdict on Prince Metternich will soon be out: An excellent diplomat and a bad politician.

Amazing what the British do with language; the nuances of politeness. The world's great diplomats, surely.

Can you imagine writers influencing things in America? Can you imagine a writer in England influencing? Absolutely not. And in France? It used to be, but no more - absolutely not. France used to, at least, have writers as diplomats, but not any more.

Right after Secretary [Rex] Tillerson was sworn in, four of the top career diplomats at the department were told their services were no longer needed.

I cannot imagine how any diplomat, or any dramatist, could improve on (Ronald Reagan's) words to Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva summit: 'Let me tell you why it is we distrust you.' Those words are candid and tough and they cannot have been easy to hear. But they are also a clear invitation to a new beginning and a new relationship that would be rooted in trust.

The [Donald] Trump folks chose not to keep [Dan Fried] on. He was actually - I said he was actually the third-most senior diplomat in the foreign service.

Most other documents leaked to WikiLeaks do not carry the same explosive potential as candid cables written by American diplomats.

I have so much respect for policy makers and diplomats, but I could never be a politician because of the way they dress!