Daily Inspiration Quote by Theodore C. Sorensen

Diplomacy, Sorensen suggests, is less about thunderous declarations than about the disciplined art of not answering. The line lands because it elevates a seemingly banal bureaucratic phrase - "I'll get back to you" - into a strategic tool, the verbal equivalent of a well-timed pause. In that pause lives leverage: time to consult allies, clarify priorities, test domestic political appetite, and avoid locking the country into a commitment that sounded tidy in the room but turns toxic in the headlines.

Sorensen wrote from inside the machinery, not the grandstand. As a Kennedy-era lawyer and speechwriter, he understood how international bargaining is often constrained by what can survive Congress, the press, and internal faction fights. The "skilled diplomat" here is a professional manager of uncertainty. The subtext is almost a rebuke to the romantic idea of statesmanship as immediate moral clarity. Real statecraft is frequently an exercise in protecting options and preventing small misstatements from becoming irreversible policy.

The humor is dry and telling. Addressing "Mr. Minister" frames the interaction as formal, polite, and quietly adversarial. Everyone involved recognizes that deferral is not ignorance; it's calibrated non-commitment. Sorensen's specific intent is to defend expertise and process in foreign policy - to argue that ambiguity, when wielded responsibly, is not weakness but a necessary buffer between complex reality and the human craving for definitive answers. In a world where a sentence can escalate a crisis, the most valuable line may be the one that buys you another day.