diplomacy

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

War is failure of diplomacy.

By the time the Freedom Flights, to use the US description, came to an end, more than 260,000 Cubans had been airlifted to the United States, every one of them registered by the Swiss before they left Cuba.

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.

Silence is not always tact and it is tact that is golden not silence.

Tact is the intelligence of the heart.

An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.

A timid question will always receive a confident answer.

If a person has no delicacy he has you in his power.

Diplomacy the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock.

"Let us agree not to step on each other's feet " said the cock to the horse.

If any pilgrim monk come from distant parts with wish as a guest to dwell in the monastery and will be content with the customs which he finds in the place and does not perchance by his lavishness disturb the monastery but is simply content with what he finds he shall be received for as long as he desires. If indeed he find fault with anything or expose it reasonably and with the humility of charity the Abbott shall discuss it prudently lest perchance God had sent him for this very thing. But if he have been found gossipy and contumacious in the time of his sojourn as guest not only ought he not be joined to the body of the monastery but also it shall be said to him honestly that he must depart. If he does not go let two stout monks in the name of God explain the matter to him.

Negotiation in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.

Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.

A distinguished diplomat could hold his tongue in ten languages.

A diplomat is a man who remembers a lady's birthday but forgets her age.

When a diplomat says yes he means perhaps when he says perhaps he means no when he says no he is no diplomat.

Diplomacy is to do and say The nastiest thing in the nicest way.