Famous quotes by Diplomats

Diplomats

Diplomats navigate the spaces between nations, translating interests into understanding and conflict into dialogue. Their voices offer measured reflections on power, patience, and the art of compromise, shaped by service in complex, often fragile contexts. Perspectives span negotiation, listening across cultures, and the quiet courage required to keep channels open. Whether you're a student, professional, or curious reader, these words invite reflection on how principled pragmatism, empathy, and resilience can move the world from tension toward common ground.

"It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes"

Jan Masaryk, Diplomat

"Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Diplomat

"Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Diplomat

"If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions"

Abba Eban, Diplomat

"The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all"

Abba Eban, Diplomat

"We were eyeball-to-eyeball and the other fellow just blinked"

Dean Rusk, Diplomat

"Globalisation will make our societies more creative and prosperous, but also more vulnerable"

Lord Robertson, Diplomat

"Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up"

Nizar Qabbani, Diplomat

"Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Diplomat

"The United Nations was not set up to be a reformatory. It was assumed that you would be good before you got in and not that being in would make you good"

John Foster Dulles, Diplomat

Small: John Foster Dulles

"Every country has the government it deserves"

Joseph de Maistre, Diplomat

"Don't buy a single vote more than necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide"

Joseph P. Kennedy, Diplomat

"The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Diplomat

"A man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail"

John Foster Dulles, Diplomat

Small: John Foster Dulles

"If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

"Ones reputation is like a shadow, it is gigantic when it precedes you, and a pigmy in proportion when it follows"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Diplomat

"Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Diplomat

"His ignorance is encyclopedic"

Abba Eban, Diplomat

"Our capacity to retaliate must be, and is, massive in order to deter all forms of aggression"

John Foster Dulles, Diplomat

Small: John Foster Dulles

"There are no warlike people - just warlike leaders"

Ralph Bunche, Diplomat

Small: Ralph Bunche

"Hearts are the strongest when they beat in response to noble ideals"

Ralph Bunche, Diplomat

Small: Ralph Bunche

"The consequence of a world full of nuclear powers to me is so incomprehensible in terms of the dangers that that implies"

Lawrence Eagleburger, Diplomat

"Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon"

Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Small: Dag Hammarskjold

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