Jean Francois Paul de Gondi Quotes

I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot.

It is important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to friendship that we are not.

Some people, you have to grit your teeth in order to stay in the same room as them, but you get on and ask the questions you assume most of the people watching want to ask.

I have a talent for dealing with difficult men.

There are some things that, if you say them out loud, will hurt the other person's feelings. I tend to say them anyway. It's better to be honest.

Too much truth is uncouth.

Soft words and hard arguments.

Diplomat: A person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.

In politics, you must learn to say 'no' without offending people. That is an art that one must master: to satisfy a person even when you have to say 'no' to him.

I'm too blunt and straightforward for politics, but I'm friends with all.

I know how to win people over if things aren't going my way.

Honest doesn't necessarily mean unfiltered.

I'm not a trash talker, that's not my thing. But if someone asks me, I'm going to say what I feel and what I think.

I have a temperament that doesn't adapt well to politics. It's because I speak my mind so much.

Like it or not, we are all liars. Thank goodness. Imagine going through life where everyone is completely honest: 'Those shoes... look like something out of an early Cyndi Lauper video.' 'Your daughter... looks like the spawn of Honey Boo Boo and Elmer Fudd.'

Sincerity is glass, discretion is diamond.

Tact is the ability to make a person see lightning without letting him feel the bolt.

The ability to have our own way, and at the same time convince others they are having their own way, is a rare thing among men. Among women it is as common as eyebrows.

In my experience tact is usually worse than the brutalities of truth.

And if candor strikes to forcefully, step back, draw careful breath, and consider the angle your words must take before you open your mouth, let them leak out. Because once you tilt the truth, it becomes a lie.

Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.

Diplomacy is the lowest form of politeness because it misquotes the greatest number of people. A nation, like an individual, if it has anything to say, should simply say it.

You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.

A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.

I consider violence an uneconomical way of attaining an end. There are always better substitutes, though they may sometimes be a little less direct.