William E. Vaughan Quotes

Diplomacy: the art of jumping into troubled waters without making a splash.

You learn, just as you learn good manners, how to approach things with a certain amount of diplomacy.

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

I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn't. Hey, it made me a better leader: you have to take a lot of people's needs into account; you have to look down the road. Trying to negotiate getting a couple of kids to watch the same TV show requires serious diplomacy.

History is filled with tragic examples of wars that result from diplomatic impasse. Whether in our local communities or in international relations, the skillful use of our communicative capacities to negotiate and resolve differences is the first evidence of human wisdom.

I'm not very keen for doves or hawks. I think we need more owls.

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

My style is to be a diplomat, not a bomb thrower.

I never use my sword when the lash suffices, nor the lash when my tongue is enough.

President Trump is engaging and if you get your points across then he asks you questions.

Our words, actions, and diplomatic efforts should be aimed at trying to achieve pragmatic goals rather than creating rhetorical effect.

A lot of what a military officer does is not just leading troops in combat. It's also doing budgets. It's solving complex problems. If you can sit down with warlords, you can certainly sit down with different parties and folks with different interests and come out with an amenable solution.

I know the pros and cons of not being diplomatic.

Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths without giving offense.

Where wisdom is called for, force is of little use.

Use soft words in hard arguments.

Potency does not mean being unnecessarily aggressive; one has to be wise.

A really good diplomat does not go in for victories, even when he wins them.

The particular skill that allows you to talk your way out of a murder rap, or convince your professor to move you from the morning to the afternoon section, is what the psychologist Robert Sternberg calls "practical intelligence." To Sternberg, practical intelligence includes things like "knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for for maximum effect.

There are always those who would put on armour and go into battle. but the real genius is in finding a way to get what you desire without dying for it.

It would be a foolish high representative who worked that way.

It's a necessary quality of a diplomat or a politician that he will compromise. Uncompromising politicians or diplomats get you into the most terrible trouble.

A good agent will sometimes need to be a scrapper, and that's the one you want.

In an ideological age, diplomacy may seem weak and prosaic. But sometimes it is all we have.

I will deal with the politicians in a political way and with the nonpoliticians in a nonpolitical way.