Harold MacMillan Quotes

Nothing he [a Foreign Secretary] can say can do very much good, and almost anything he may say may do a great deal of harm. Anything he says that is not obvious is dangerous; whatever is not trite is risky. He is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

I majored in political communications, so I intended to be a diplomat.

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

In order to be a diplomat, one must speak a number of languages, including doubletalk.

The old diplomat liked to move with deliberation, in secret, following well-established traditions and working through what he loved to describe as "the usual channels". To him, the open debate carried on, not by professional diplomats, but by politicians and statesmen having little regard for the use of the technical phraseology of diplomacy and intent merely on reaching results which would make diplomacy unnecessary, was offensive to all his instincts.

You'd make a great Secretary of State because State Department personnel don't answer questions completely either.

A pupil of diplomacy has to learn three things: to speak French, to speak nothing, and to speak falsehood.

Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts.

I think there is a diplomatic stance that would fit me and I will stick to my own style, while also seeking assistance from the Foreign Ministry.

Diplomacy: lying in state.

A Foreign Secretaryand this applies also to a prospective Foreign Secretaryis always faced with this cruel dilemma. Nothing he can say can do very much good, and almost anything he may say may do a great deal of harm. Anything he says that is not obvious is dangerous; whatever is not trite is risky. He is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

Diplomacy, of course, is a subtle and nuanced craft, so much so that it's said that when the most wily diplomat of the nineteenth-century passed away, other diplomats asked, on reports of his death, "What do you suppose the old fox meant by that?

After four years at the United Nations I sometimes yearn for the peace and tranquility of a political convention.

If a senator calls me up and asks me what should we do in Iraq, I'm happy to talk to him.

We can't make any statements here. We can't talk about the internal politics of Paraguay.

We have a prime minister, I'm the foreign minister, I'm trying to get on with the job of doing Australia's foreign policy.

Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts, and politicians violently denounce the politicians of other countries.

There is a sense in which the United States ambassador speaks to the United States, as well as for the United States. I have always seen my role as a thermostat rather than a thermometer. So I'm going to be actively working... for my own concerns. I have always had people advise me on what to say, but never on what not to say.

Congress cannot—nor should it—run foreign policy on a day-to-day basis. That is a truism.

When I disagree with the President on foreign policy, I ought to do it on American soil.

... knew more about world politics than all the cabinet ministers in office.

At home you always have to be a politician. When you're abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.

I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer

Politics is the food of sense exposed to the hunger of folly.

We must be careful about speech writers making foreign policy.