Quotes About Diplomacy

But we can rightly expect that our leaders use language that treats others with respect, and even honors them when they do good things for our land—even if we disagree with their politics.

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Damn it, Pierre, what do you want me to do We'll go sit with empty chairs to get those guys back to the table. (To Pierre Trudeau, prime minister of Canada)

People don't start wars, governments do.

Some say it will bring war to the heavens, but its purpose is to deter war, in the heavens and on earth.

The vote on the Peacekeeper is also a vote on Geneva. Rejecting the Peacekeeper will knock the legs out from under the negotiating table. (On importance of the MX missile)

We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.

War is our only recourse. There is no other remedy.

If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." The old adage applies here as well. If your only functioning government institution is the military, everything looks like a war—and when everything looks like war, everything looks like a military mission.

Many at the State Department think its their job, not the Army's, to develop cultural and regional expertise and relationships. In such quarters, the RAF concept looks less like an innovative approach to global risk management than yet another military effort to replace diplomats with soldiers.

What shall I say? I must tread a fine line between glaciosity and friendlinosity. With just a hint of 'you don't know what you are missing, my fine-feathered friend.

The author relates George Bernard Shaw's sentiments that polite conversation excludes the only two subjects that matter, religion and politics.

Better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.

James liked to joke that if America ever invaded Canada, Canadians would probably apologize for being in their way.

Ouça-me este conselho: em política, não se perdoa nem se esquece nada.

Que pour être efficace, il faut cacher ses intentions.

Those who believe that where great personages are concerned new favors cause old injuries to be forgotten deceive themselves.

For, although one may be very strong in armed forces, yet in entering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the natives.

To reduce the sum of our existence to a competitive struggle for advantage among more than two hundred nations is not clear-eyed but myopic. People and nations compete, but that is not all that they do.

The particular skill that allows you to talk your way out of a murder rap, or convince your professor to move you from the morning to the afternoon section, is what the psychologist Robert Sternberg calls practical intelligence. To Sternberg, practical intelligence includes things like knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for for maximum effect.

To Sternberg, practical intelligence includes things like "knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.

any attempt to downplay or sugarcoat the meaning of what is being said. We mitigate when we're being polite, or when we're ashamed or embarrassed, or when we're being deferential to authority. If you want your boss to do you a favor, you

practical intelligence includes things like "knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.