Frank Herbert Quotes

In dealing with a man who thinks you are a fool, it is good sometimes to remind him that you know what he knows but have chosen to appear foolish for the sake of peace.

It's my custom to say something flattering to begin with so I shall be excused if I put my foot in it later on.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

During my years as a press secretary, I developed a powerful internal filter, which worked to strip all things 'off message' from my thoughts before they came out of my mouth. It didn't always work, of course, and I said more than a few things I regretted.

Princes need, in tender matters and ticklish times, to beware what they say.

Gauge your public carefully, and be all things to all men.

Diplomacy is the art of saying “Nice Doggie!” till you can find a rock.

The Politician uses the language of diplomacy of which he is a master, and it consists in telling some of the truth without necessarily exhausting it.

Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts.

We must be careful about speech writers making foreign policy.

Political leaders are expert at saying nothing.

There is a responsibility as president to choose your words carefully, especially on foreign policy, and to speak as clearly as possible.

Being a host or a guest or a pundit, you really want to say something that's interesting and potentially provocative, that's going to stick with people. The last thing you want to say when you're a politician is something provocative.

Listen! Say less rather than more. If you want to be smart, play stupid!

A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem ignorant of what people offer to tell you; and when they say, Have not you heard of such a thing? to answer No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.

Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said.

The real secret about diplomats is that we're trained to say something, when there is nothing to say, and to say nothing when there is something to say.

I do think that it's really important for leaders of countries to be very clear and careful in the statements they make because their words are weighed extremely carefully by other countries, and you have to create a continuity of seriousness and of credibility in order to be able to be taken seriously and get things done.

And a diplomatist is one who lets the other fellow think he's getting his way, while all the time he's having his own. It never does any special harm to let people have their way with their mouths.

All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal.... If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.

I don't say things straight into the other person's face. I kind of like to make a joke or a remark and make it digestible or just give a little comment that voices my concern, but is not meant to be a critique, but just a comment so that he understands that I am thinking.

There is no polite way to suggest to someone that they have devoted their life to a folly.

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

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.