Diplomacy the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock.
Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.
Without tact you can learn nothing.
If you never stepped on anybody's toes, you never been for a walk.
An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.
Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
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...
To have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact talk to every woman as if you loved her and to every man as if he bored you.
In this slipshod age, we need object lessons in language and thought. – Edith Wharton on an address by John Hay
A distinguished diplomat could hold his tongue in ten languages.
I'm accustomed to reading Georgian and Victorian letters and sometimes you simply know in your gut that a blithe sentence is covering up a deeper emotion.