Quotes from Peter Ustinov

Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much.

Laughter would be bereaved if snobbery died.

Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.

Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth.

People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven't got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.

There is no question but that if Jesus Christ, or a great prophet from another religion, were to come back today, he would find it virtually impossible to convince anyone of his credentials despite the fact that the vast evangelical machine on American television is predicated on His imminent return among us sinners.

Courage is often lack of insight, whereas cowardice in many cases is based on good information.

I love history. It's so old." - Attributed to Peter Ustinov.

Like pornographers fretting under the burden of their wish dreams, these obscene buffoons suddenly found it unnecessary to assuage their fever among the pages of forbidden books or to pay for relief in some bordello, because a government of lonely fanatics swept into power and gradually lent official sanction to the dirtiest, saddest aspects of human nature, the lack of imagination which leads the ill to put their most libidinous nightmares into practice.

The lack of a personal core is at the base of such men, the inability to support doubt in any form, the fear of facing themselves...

People at the top of the tree are those without qualifications to detain those at the bottom

I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine.

Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, it is our duty to furnish it well.

Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious

Unfortunately, a superabundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.

It is our responsibilities not ourselves that we should take seriously.

I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool, an optimist must know what a sad place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.

The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.

If Botticelli were alive today he'd be working for Vogue.

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come