In the world of diplomacy, some things are better left unsaid.
– Lincoln Chafee
Diplomacy is a game of chess in which the nations are checkmated.
– Karl Kraus
diplomacy, n.: The patriotic art of lying for one’s country.
– Ambrose Bierce
It is a principle of diplomacy that one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.
– Tom Clancy
A diplomat is a man who can juggle a hot potato long enough for it to become a cold issue.
– Vernon K. Mclellan
You’re in America now. Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you’d prefer.
– Jim Butcher
When a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps; when he says perhaps, he means no; when he says no, he is no diplomat.
In order to be a diplomat, one must speak a number of languages, including doubletalk.
– Carey Williams
Look and see which way the wind blows before you commit yourself.
– Aesop
If we think of nations as “actors” on the world stage, diplomats are the stage hands.
– Gregory Adams
Diplomacy, of course, is a subtle and nuanced craft, so much so that it’s said that when the most wily diplomat of the nineteenth-century passed away, other diplomats asked, on reports of his death, “What do you suppose the old fox meant by that?”
– Ronald Reagan
Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated.
– Marquis de Sade
An ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie and intrigue for the benefit of his country.
– Henry Wotton
I’m always diplomatic when heavily outnumbered by armed strangers.
– S.M. Stirling
A diplomat is a man who thinks twice before he says nothing.
– Edward Heath
Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths.
– Winston Churchill
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
The gateway to compromise is not war, yet communication and diplomacy.
To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.
When diplomacy ends, War begins.
– Adolf Hitler
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
– Sun Tzu
A diplomat thinks twice before saying nothing.
Diplomacy is the art of letting someone have your way.
– Daniele Vare
Diplomacy is the art of saying “Nice Doggie” until you can find a rock.
– Will Rogers
Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.
– Winston Churchill
Tact – is a weapon of mass harmonization; it brings men of war into terms where guns have failed to yield a single grain of victory.
Diplomacy and virtue do not make easy companions.
– Iain Pears
I observe and remain silent.
– Elizabeth I Tudor
Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.
– Mario Puzo
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.