Edward Heath Quotes

Diplomacy is more than saying or doing the right things at the right time, it is avoiding saying or doing the wrong things at any time.

To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.

In the world of diplomacy, some things are better left unsaid.

If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.

Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.

These, then, are the qualities of my ideal diplomatist. Truth, accuracy, calm, patience, good temper, modesty and loyalty. They are also the qualities of an ideal diplomacy. But, the reader may object, you have forgotten intelligence, knowledge, discernment, prudence, hospitality, charm, industry, courage and even tact. I have not forgotten them. I have taken them for granted.

The art of diplomacy is to take your humiliations in private.

It illustrates vividly my incapacity of knowing when to be silent and when to speak.

There is no diplomacy like silence.

There's nothing wrong with keeping your mouth shut if you don't have anything nice to say.

Knowing when to speak up and when to shut up will get you very far not only in business, but in life.

If you have nothing to say, say nothing.

You can't say everything, so you don't say nothing.

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

As an editor, I have to be tactful, of course.

It's not so much knowing when to speak, when to pause.

There is a time to speak and a time to listen, and sometimes people need to shut up.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

One of the most beneficial things I've ever learned is how to keep my mouth shut.

Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.

It is well for one to know more than he says.

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

Silence and tact may or may not be the same thing.

I'm not always the most diplomatic person.

An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding his tongue.