Best 176 quotes in «diplomacy quotes» category

As far as I know, only politicians can make this kind of miracle staying more than 30 years of their entire life lying or hiding from the electors what really happen behind the political curtain of our status quo. This is one of the rare cases that a politician can swear in front of any deity or authority without any hesitation: “I really appreciate your ignorance or indifference about politics. It’s a blessing for me in my lifetime”.

A successful ambassador has to bring the bacon home without spilling the beans.

At one end of the national spectrum is white, shining peace—that city-on-a-hill concept. At the other end is black, raging, savage war at the foot of that hill. The space between is the gray zone where the haze of diplomacy and combat meet and bleed into one another. That’s where the CIA works.

Attempts to locate oneself within history are as natural, and as absurd, as attempts to locate oneself within astronomy. On the day that I was born, 13 April 1949, nineteen senior Nazi officials were convicted at Nuremberg, including Hitler's former envoy to the Vatican, Baron Ernst von Weizsacker, who was found guilty of planning aggression against Czechoslovakia and committing atrocities against the Jewish people. On the same day, the State of Israel celebrated its first Passover seder and the United Nations, still meeting in those days at Flushing Meadow in Queens, voted to consider the Jewish state's application for membership. In Damascus, eleven newspapers were closed by the regime of General Hosni Zayim. In America, the National Committee on Alcoholism announced an upcoming 'A-Day' under the non-uplifting slogan: 'You can drink—help the alcoholic who can't.' ('Can't'?) The International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled in favor of Britain in the Corfu Channel dispute with Albania. At the UN, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko denounced the newly formed NATO alliance as a tool for aggression against the USSR. The rising Chinese Communists, under a man then known to Western readership as Mao Tze-Tung, announced a limited willingness to bargain with the still-existing Chinese government in a city then known to the outside world as 'Peiping.' All this was unknown to me as I nuzzled my mother's breast for the first time, and would certainly have happened in just the same way if I had not been born at all, or even conceived. One of the newspaper astrologists for that day addressed those whose birthday it was: There are powerful rays from the planet Mars, the war god, in your horoscope for your coming year, and this always means a chance to battle if you want to take it up. Try to avoid such disturbances where women relatives or friends are concerned, because the outlook for victory upon your part in such circumstances is rather dark. If you must fight, pick a man! Sage counsel no doubt, which I wish I had imbibed with that same maternal lactation, but impartially offered also to the many people born on that day who were also destined to die on it.

Auch wenn zwei Staaten in Deutschland existieren, sind sie doch füreinander nicht Ausland; ihre Beziehungen zueinander können nur von besonderer Art sein." ("Even though two states in Germany exist, they are not foreign countries to each other—their relations with each other can only be of a special kind.") First Inaugural Address as West German Chancellor, October 28, 1969

Aunque muchos hemos criticado las sucesivas intervenciones militares de los Estados Unidos en la región, no se ha tomado en cuenta el hecho irrebatible de que, en algunas ocasiones, pocas pero significativas, fueron los gobiernos latinoamericanos los que promovieron una acción unilateral norteamericana, para evitarse las molestias, costo y trabajo de una acción diplomática y militar conjunta. Considero penoso que cuando se produjo la invasión a Santo Domingo, el presidente Leoni de Venezuela fue el único jefe de Estado latinoamericano que protestó.

A turbulent history has taught Chinese leaders that not every problem has a solution and that too great an emphasis on total mastery over specific events could upset the harmony of the universe.

A well-trained diplomat is supposed to write French, for example, like an angel, but to speak it with the peculiar gutlessness of a Geneva nancy-boy.

British diplomats and Anglo-American types in Washington have a near-superstitious prohibition on uttering the words 'Special Relationship' to describe relations between Britain and America, lest the specialness itself vanish like a phantom at cock-crow.

Be a craftsman in speech that thou mayest be strong, for the strength of one is the tongue, and speech is mightier than all fighting.

Building relationships on a global scale requires putting human beings on the ground in regions all over the world—and only the Army has the manpower to do this.

Diplomacy is the art of selling a deal you don’t want to people you don’t trust for reasons you won’t admit to.” -Prokopia Lekapene, first and only Hierarch of the League of Free Cities

But it doesn't take a thousand men to open a door, my lord." "It might to keep it open.

But people misunderstand warfare and think it is an end unto itself. But on the international stage, war is nothing more than another tool of diplomacy. If your country doesn’t have a credible, powerful military force capable of bringing pain, death, and destruction to an enemy, then your diplomats can’t get much done, because you simply aren’t powerful—there’s no threat of pain they can wield. That’s why the western Pacific island nation of Nauru doesn’t have a seat on the UN Security Council. Not recognizing this principle is shortsighted (no disrespect intended to the fine people of Nauru).

Diplomacy is the art of recognizing all colors and knowing how to mix them up and bring them back as they were first.

Diplomacy never works.

Diplomacy is the art of getting what you want without offending anyone too badly.

Diplomacy was created due to lack of trust between people. Trust is the fundamental force of attraction between people whereas diplomacy is the fundamental force of repulsion between people. Today, offsprings are taught diplomacy as the fundamental building block of a society instead of trust. As a result transparency of the society is lost and individuals in it are forced to trust double faced devils!

Diplomacy without sagacity and manoeuvre is like music with instruments.

Diplomacy is not a veiling of the truth. It is the ability to be sensitive to the truth.

Diplomacy is the egg of politics. One can eat that and benefit too.

China, the nation which suppressed every citizen in the country who has a different opinion to the government while the rulers sneak “peacefully” into every market in wider world of Diverse cultures.

Ciente de tuas capacidades e limitações, não inicies nenhuma empreitada que não possas levar a cabo.

Convince and enemy, convince him that he's wrong, is to win a bloodless battle where victory is long. A simple act of faith, is reason over might, To blow up his children would only prove him right.

Diplomacy in leadership is winning the war on behalf of both sides

Diplomacy is so weak and prosaic. Diplomacy must never become an end, itself. Facts are so much more important in science. Yet, I'm beginning to appreciate the value of a soft word and a smile. --Unassimilated pg 294

Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way.

Dinner was a comedy of diplomacy.

Diplomatic exchange combined the worst aspects of explaining things to a toddler and talking with a mother-in-law. It was dull, it was tedious, it was exasperating, and it was necessary.

Diplomacy, if conducted sensibly, is a matter of small gains offset by small losses, an attempt to maintain a state of equilibrium in which catastrophes are either mitigated or, with luck, avoided entirely.

Do not talk of rights, else politics would start Scales would come out, haggling would start

Eastward and westward storms are breaking,--great, ugly whirlwinds of hatred and blood and cruelty. I will not believe them inevitable.

El orden que hoy está surgiendo deberán edificarlo estadistas que representan culturas sumamente distintas, que administran enormes burocracias de tal complejidad que, a menudo, la energía de estos estadistas se gasta más atendiendo a la maquinaria administrativa que definiendo un propósito. Estos estadistas han llegado a la cumbre del poder gracias a unas cualidades que no siempre son las necesarias para gobernar y aún son menos apropiadas para edificar un orden internacional.

He had come to prospect the intentions of Charles towards the French and the Anglo-Austrian coalition, and even if Charles had thrown his jack-boot at his head, it would not have disturbed him from his mission. Marlborough was a slow negotiator. He was never in a hurry to make propositions or ask questions, preferring under cover of a banal conversation to use his extremely acute faculties of observation, and his art of unraveling other men’s motives, as it were, sideways. The ablest diplomat will never boast of understanding a man, but only his intentions.

His knowledge of war has fed a passion for peace.

History is littered with the wars everybody knew could never happen.

How can you cry for others’ struggles when you are facilitating mayhem in your own land?

How do you know... how do you know anything... US officials are making Maduro sounds like a corrupt, evil dictator... almost like a Stalin! Then the alternative voices (Thank God) are saying well they seem to like Maduro just fine over there... and since there must be nothing else to do in the world, US is just playing the old game of 'stop hitting yourself' let's do sanctions, and freeze your assets, and then... THEN LOOK MADURO'S STARVING HIS PEOPLE! Umm. Ya... no. I guess it really doesn't take a lotta brain to be a diplomat.

If the Republic of China, is going to move forward with their noble idea of making Sri Lanka a Shipping Hub, then the country must focus on eliminating corrupting bugs in the bed.

IF you draw a line in the sand you betray the loyalty of your cause

If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

I knew nothing at all of the art of diplomacy, which I have since diagnosed as the ability to make the nastiest possible comment in the nicest possible way.

...il appartient aux services de sécurité, de toute nature, comme dans tous les pays, de participer à la défense du territoire national. Cette défense ne signifie pas de mettre des cartouches dans un fusil. De nos jours, il existe d'autres formes de cartouches. L'intelligence économique est beaucoup plus importante que l'intelligence militaire classique. Quand les marocains pénètrent dans toute l'Afrique, ils sont devenus plus puissants que les Algériens. Ici nous en sommes encore aux réflexes des années 1970 sans avoir l'aura de la diplomatie algérienne des années 1970.

In the lives of nations the really worthwhile things cannot and will not be hidden.

In this regard, we should never overlook the importance of being economically successful and militarily secure. Diplomacy is not a single-barrelled gun. While we should always uphold the principle of settling disputes peacefully through diplomacy and rule of law, we need to be mindful that in practice, the extent to which disputing parties are willing to come to the table depends on larger considerations including where they stand economically and militarily in relation to each other.

Real firmness is good for every thing—Strut is good for nothing.

Do not mix politics and diplomacy with love, nor try to test the love as an act of gambling, just feel with your purity of heart and soul that leads you towards the real beloved.

In diplomacy there are two kinds of problems: 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.

I think there is a substantial difference between hypocrisy and diplomacy: hypocrisy is not saying things, diplomacy is knowing how to say things.

It's a time-honored truism of diplomacy that the most resented epithet is the one most accurately depicting the deficiencies of the recipient.