Diplomacy Quotes

“I have trod a measure, I have flattered a lady, I havebeen politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy.”

“Come, go with us, speak fair; you may salve so,Not what is dangerous present, but the losOf what is past.”

“Shall we upon the footing of our landSend fair-play orders, and make compromise,Insinuation, parley, and base truce,To arms invasive?”

“It is not always possible to have everything go as one likes. In working with allies, it sometimes happens that they develop opinions of their own”

“That long (Canadian) frontier from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, guarded only by neighbourly respect and honourable obligations, as an example to every country and a pattern for the future of the world.”

“There is at least one thing worse than fighting with allies - And that is to fight without them”

“Now that we are, as you say, 'in the same boat,' would it not be wise for us to have another conference ... and the sooner the better.”

“We have no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests.”

“The belief that security can be obtained by throwing a small state to the wolves is a fatal delusion.”

“There is the solution which I respectfully offer to you in this Address to which I have given the title "The Sinews of Peace."”

“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”

“Vast and fearsome as the human scene has become, personal contact of the right people, in the right places, at the right time, may yet have a potent and valuable part to play in the cause of peace which is in our hearts.”

“I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.”

“Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths without giving offense.”

“The maxim of courts is that manner is power.”

“Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.”

“An earnest conjuration from the King,As England was his faithful tributary,As love between them like the palm might flourish,As peace should still her wheaten garland wearAnd stand a comma 'tween their amities,And many such-like as's of great charge,That, on the view and knowing of these contents,Without debatement further, more or less,He should the bearers put to sudden death,Not shriving time allow'd.”

“I am not one of those who believe that a great standing army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession.”

“There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight.”

“I had rather have everybody on my side than be armed to the teeth.”

“To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make a permanent conquest.”

“Only a peace between equals can last. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit.”

“There are no people in the world who are so slow to develop hostile feelings against a foreign country as the Americans, and no people who, once estranged, are more difficult to win back.”

“The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience. [On diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China]”

“It must be a peace without victory... Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals can last.”