quotations about diplomacy
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
As in the game of billiards, the balls are constantly producing effects from mere chance, which the most skillful player could neither execute nor foresee, but which, when they do happen, serve mainly to teach him how much he has still to learn; so it is in the most profound and complicated game of politics and diplomacy. In both cases, we can only regulate our play by what we have seen, rather than by what we have hoped; and by what we have experienced, rather than by what we have expected.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words
The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach -- condemnation without discussion -- can carry forward only a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.
BARACK OBAMA
Nobel Lecture, Dec. 10, 2009
Oh, diplomacy ... it mops up war's spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.
DAVID MITCHELL
Cloud Atlas
All war represents a failure of diplomacy.
TONY BENN
speech, Feb. 28, 1991
Dexterity is one of the chief weapons of diplomacy; governments rely more upon the supremacy of this instrument, when in the hands of a skillful diplomatist, than in the soundness or justice of their claims.
JAMES ELLIS
attributed, Day's Collacon
What good is a smooth tongue without sharp teeth?
JOCELYN MURRAY
The Gilded Mirror
A diplomat is a man who can juggle a hot potato long enough for it to become a cold issue.
VERNON K. MCLELLAN
Wise Words and Quotes
Young man, in diplomacy there are two kinds of problem: small ones and large ones. The small ones will go away by themselves, and the large ones you will not be able to do anything about. The biggest challenges in your career will come from the temptation to act. The test of your mettle will be how nobly you surmount it.
PATRICK MCGUINNESS
The Last Hundred Days
Our diplomacy should be direct and frank, neither seeking to obtain more nor accepting less than is our due.
JAMES BUCHANAN
Inaugural Address, 1857
If we think of nations as "actors" on the world stage, diplomats are the stage hands.
GREGORY ADAMS
All the World's a Stage
Diplomacy is like going down a rapids in a canoe: one does not consider controlling the direction of the canoe for it takes all one's effort just to keep it right side up.
JAMES T. TEDESCHI
The Social Influence Processes
And a diplomatist is one who lets the other fellow think he's getting his way, while all the time he's having his own. It never does any special harm to let people have their way with their mouths.
GEORGE HORACE LORIMER
Old Gorgon Graham
In a world where war is everybody's tragedy and everybody's nightmare, diplomacy is everybody's business.
LORD STRANG
attributed, The Practice of Diplomacy: Its Evolution
To speak of honest diplomacy is like speaking of dry water.
JOSEPH STALIN
attributed, The New Diplomacy: International Affairs in the Modern Age
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a stick.
VERNON K. MCLELLAN
Wise Words and Quotes
Diplomacy is to do and say
The nastiest thing in the nicest way.
ISAAC GOLDBERG
The Reflex
Diplomacy and virtue do not make easy companions.
IAIN PEARS
The Dream of Scipio
Coming from a developing country, I was trained extensively in international law and diplomacy and mistakenly assumed that the great powers, especially the United States, also trained their representatives in diplomacy and accepted the value of it. But the Roman Empire had no need for diplomacy. Nor does the United States. Diplomacy is perceived by an imperial power as a waste of time and prestige and a sign of weakness.
BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI
Unvanquished
To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.
WILL DURANT
The Story of Civilization