Quotes about diplomacy

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

— Walter Bagehot

Consul. In American politics, a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is given one by the Administration on condition that he leave the country.

— Ambrose Bierce

If you are to stand up for your Government you must be able to stand up to your Government.

— Lord Harold Caccia

Diplomacy is the art of saying Nice doggie! till you can find a rock.

— Wynn Catlin

I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.

— Di Cavour

To act with doubleness towards a man whose own conduct was double, was so near an approach to virtue that it deserved to be called by no meaner name than diplomacy.

— George Eliot

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.

— Robert Frost

There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When an official reports that talks were useful, it can safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains, they drown in every drop.

— Charles De Gaulle

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

— David Lloyd George

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

— Isaac Goldberg

We have no commission from God to police the world.

— Benjamin Harrison

We are the greatest power in the world. If we behave like it.

— Walt W. Rostow

My advice to any diplomat who wants to have a good press is to have two or three kids and a dog.

— Carl Rowan

A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.

— Caskie Stinnett

When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.

— Sun Tzu

Diplomacy means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interim period, appeasement of Fascism.

— Barbara Tuchman

When a diplomat says yes he means perhaps; when he says perhaps he means no; when he says no he is no diplomat.

— Source Unknown

Diplomacy is thinking twice before saying nothing.

— Source Unknown

A distinguished diplomat could hold his tongue in ten languages.

— Source Unknown

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

— Peter Ustinov

Diplomacy is the art of letting someone have your way.

— Daniele Vare

Tell the truth, and so puzzle and confound your adversaries.

— Sir Henry Wotton

Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died.

— Andrew Young