DIPLOMATIC QUOTES
“To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.” ~ Will Durant
“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” ~ Winston Churchill
“There is no diplomacy like silence.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli
“…words are some of the most powerful and important things I know….Language is the tool of love and the weapon of hatred. It’s the bright red warning flag of danger–and the stone foundation of diplomacy and peace.” ~ Ani DiFranco
“Diplomacy is a game of chess in which the nations are checkmated.” ~ Karl Kraus
“Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
“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.” ~ Jon Huntsman, Jr.
“Diplomacy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone would fail.” ~ John F. Kennedy
“Diplomacy – the art of jumping into trouble without making a splash.” ~ Art Linkletter
“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.” ~ Sue Monk Kidd
“Trying to negotiate getting a couple of kids to watch the same TV show requires serious diplomacy.” ~ Dee Dee Myers
“When we’re trying to solve difficult national issues its sometimes necessary to talk to adversaries as well as friends. Historians have a word for this: diplomacy.” ~ Madeleine Albright
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
“Diplomacy is much more than just talking to your friends… You’ve got to talk to people who aren’t our friends, and even people you dislike.” ~ Richard Armitage
“Diplomacy is not merely talking somebody into something; it’s talking to somebody from a position of strength. You put your power on the table to open up the conversation; that’s diplomacy.” ~ Daniel Fried
“In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.” ~ Barack Obama
“The principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy – give one and take ten” ~ Mark Twain
“Diplomacy is to do and say, the nastiest thing in the nicest way.” ~ Isaac Goldberg
“All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.” ~ Zhou Enlai
“All war represents a failure of diplomacy.” ~ Tony Benn
“diplomacy, n.: The patriotic art of lying for one’s country.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
“War is failure of diplomacy.” ~ John Dingell
“Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.” ~ David Lloyd George
“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?” ~ Ronald Reagan
“Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths without giving offense.” ~ Winston Churchill
“Diplomacy is the velvet glove that cloaks the fist of power.” ~ Robin Hobb
“The policy of dollar diplomacy is one that appeals alike to idealistic humanitarian sentiments, to dictates of sound policy, and strategy, and to legitimate commercial aims.” ~ William Howard Taft
“Diplomacy is like jazz: endless variations on a theme.” ~ Richard Holbrooke
“The practice of diplomacy, I have found, is sometimes like eating soup with a fork: much activity yielding little nourishment.” ~ Sheri S. Tepper
“Diplomacy, n. is the art of letting somebody else have your way.” ~ David Frost
“Follow your instincts, and handle all with respect and diplomacy.” ~ Rachael Yamagata
“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.” ~ Will Rogers
“We are the greatest power in the world. If we behave like it.” ~ Walt Whitman Rostow
“We always have hoped that American diplomacy deploys itself in dialogue and persuasion rather than by ultimatums. That is the path we want in international relations.” ~ Mahmoud Abbas
“Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way.” ~ Lester B. Pearson
“Diplomacy in general does not resolve conflicts. Wars end not due to peace processes, but due to one side giving up.” ~ Daniel Pipes
“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
“Diplomacy: lying in state.” ~ Oliver Herford
“Part of diplomacy is to open different definitions of self-interest.” ~ Hillary Clinton
“I know no diplomacy save that of truth.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” ~ Sun Tzu
“Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name-calling is left to the foreign ministers.” ~ W. Averell Harriman
“For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible – and no one can now doubt the word of America.” ~ George W. Bush
“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
“An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.” ~ Walter Bagehot
“History offers examples of winning in diplomacy after losing in war.” ~ Shigeru Yoshida
“A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.” ~ Robert Frost
“Diplomacy is a disguised war, in which states seek to gain by barter and intrigue, by the cleverness of arts, the objectives which they would have to gain more clumsily by means of war.” ~ Randolph Bourne
“The only real diplomacy ever performed by a diplomat is in deceiving their own people after their dumbness has got them into a war.” ~ Will Rogers
“I think anyone who comes upon a Nautilus machine suddenly will agree with me that its prototype was clearly invented at some time in history when torture was considered a reasonable alternative to diplomacy.” ~ Anna Quindlen
“MINISTER, n. An agent of a higher power with a lower responsibility. In diplomacy, an officer sent into a foreign country as the visible embodiment of his sovereign’s hostility.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
“Iran’s strong logic and firm diplomacy is the guideline for all government officials in negotiations on country’s peaceful nuclear program with foreigners, quite resolutely.” ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
“Diplomacy is, perhaps, one element of the U.S. government that should not be subject to the demands of ‘open government’; whenever it works, it is usually because it is done behind closed doors. But this may be increasingly hard to achieve in the age of Twittering bureaucrats.” ~ Evgeny Morozov
“American diplomacy is easy on the brain but hell on the feet.” ~ Charles G. Dawes
“Diplomacy is what is practiced after-the-fact. Never be too right too soon — as any smart Uncle will tell you. The man who guesses what will happen will be blamed for it. No one will believe he has merely guessed.” ~ Hortense Calisher
“Diplomacy and virtue do not make easy companions.” ~ Iain Pears
“ULTIMATUM, n. In diplomacy, a last demand before resorting to concessions.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
“The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.” ~ Brent Scowcroft
“In diplomacy, like in great many other things, the rules of engagement survive only until one remarkable person decides to break them.” ~ Ilona Andrews
“The war we are fighting today against terrorism is a multifaceted fight. We have to use every tool in our toolkit to wage this war – diplomacy, finance, intelligence, law enforcement, and of course, military power – and we are developing new tools as we go along.” ~ Richard Armitage
“I think if I had to do it over again, I’d do it the same way. I would just put more resources into getting the public diplomacy part much stronger than we were able to.” ~ John Poindexter
“Globalization, far from putting an end to power diplomacy between States, has, on the contrary, intensified it.” ~ Omar Bongo
“The safety of the republic being the supreme law, and Texas having offered us the key to the safety of our country from all foreign intrigues and diplomacy, I say accept the key and bolt the door at once.” ~ Andrew Jackson
“The most important thing is to find collective solutions in diplomacy and I think that is possible.” ~ Vladimir Putin
“You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done.” ~ Kofi Annan
“Let every girl, let every woman, let every mother here [in Israel]-and there in my country [Egypt]-know we shall solve all our problems through negotiations around the table rather than starting war.” ~ Anwar Sadat
“We’ve made clear our view, which is we support the Russian proposal. It’s within the context of the EU diplomacy aimed at getting Iran to re-suspend its enrichment activities and return to negotiations.” ~ Joseph Adam Ereli
“There’s the one thing no nation can ever accuse us of and that is secret diplomacy. Our foreign are an open book, generally a check book.” ~ Will Rogers
“I think it’s fair to say that diplomacy today requires much more of that if you’re the United States of America than it did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago.” ~ Hillary Clinton
“The only summit meeting that can succeed is one that does not take place.” ~ Barry Goldwater
“Diplomacy means the art of nearly deceiving all your friends, but not quite deceiving all your enemies.” ~ Kofi Abrefa Busia
“In the world of diplomacy, some things are better left unsaid.” ~ Lincoln Chafee
“The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to the modern idea of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets.” ~ William Howard Taft
“Force is not inevitable. Diplomacy is still the desired means. Pressure is an element of the means.” ~ Dennis A. Ross
“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it… You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.” ~ Will Rogers
“Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died.” ~ Andrew Young
“Like Prince von Bismarck in diplomacy, I have no secrets.” ~ Albert J. Nock
“America must continue diplomacy, even as we continue the war, to expand the coalition of the willing to share the burden of war and to share the responsibility and the economic cost of rebuilding Iraq” ~ Barbara Mikulski
“The time draws near, when a radical change must take place for the whole world in the management of diplomacy.” ~ Lajos Kossuth
“You learn, just as you learn good manners, how to approach things with a certain amount of diplomacy.” ~ Robert MacNeil
“This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.” ~ Tom Daschle
“Important part of our diplomacy is that people take our words seriously.” ~ George W. Bush
“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” ~ John F. Kennedy
“We hope that diplomacy works before you ever use force. The hardest decision a president makes is ever to use force.” ~ George W. Bush
“Diplomacy should always be our first option. Most politicians only talk, not fight. I’ve fought; talking is far better than fighting.” ~ Seth Moulton
“Unfortunately, diplomacy was a dance I needed to learn.” ~ Maria V. Snyder
“Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
“The Peace Treaties must be scrapped … I stand for no more war and no more secret diplomacy.” ~ Clement Attlee
“You need diplomacy and not slogans. This is the place for wisdom, the place for seeking windows that will take you to the objective.” ~ Bill Vaughan
“In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known.” ~ Thomas R. Pickering
“Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.” ~ Will Rogers
“Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts.” ~ Margaret Sanger
“It is better to inconsistently save some lives than to consistently save none.” ~ Nicholas D. Kristof
“In diplomacy, clear-cut wins and losses are rare.” ~ Madeleine Albright
“I believe it is peace for our time.” ~ Neville Chamberlain
“The best diplomacy starts with getting to know each other.” ~ George W. Bush
“Diplomacy without military might is like music without instruments.” ~ Frederick The Great
“Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.” ~ Otto von Bismarck
“There is no diplomacy like candor.” ~ E. V. Lucas
“He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides.” ~ George P. Shultz
“Often I must speak otherwise than I think. This is called diplomacy.” ~ Frank Herbert
“Diplomacy, if properly practiced, is not just talking for the sake of talking.” ~ Condoleezza Rice
“A diplomat these days is nothing but a head waiter who’s allowed to sit down occasionally.” ~ Peter Ustinov
“Once we understand how they think, we can predict their behaviour. And once we predict it well, we can manipulate it. That is diplomacy.” ~ Charlie Huston
“It is a principle of diplomacy that one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.” ~ Tom Clancy
“When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.” ~ Winston Churchill
“When diplomacy ends, War begins.” ~ Adolf Hitler
“Tact is kind; diplomacy is useful; euphemism is harmless and sometimes entertaining” ~ Julian Burnside
“I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I tell them the truth and they never believe me.” ~ Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
“I’m always diplomatic when heavily outnumbered by armed strangers.” ~ S.M. Stirling
“If you can’t go around it, over it, or through it, you had better negotiate with it.” ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
“Building up arms is not a substitute for diplomacy.” ~ Samuel Pisar
“If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
“Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!”
― Theodore Roosevelt
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees