Peter Ustinov Quotes

Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.

I have Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Ethiopian blood in my veins.

Sex is a conversation carried out by other means.

Pavarotti is not vain, but conscious of being unique.

It is unfortunate for all that no moral issue has ever been clearer. Any attempt to plea-bargain with outlaws and renegades will only be at the expense of honor, decency and self-respect. The Serbs, are two-dimensional people with a craving for simplicity and an ideology so basic it can be understood without effort. They need enemies, not friends, to focus their two-dimensional ideas. Life for them is a simple tune, never an orchestration, or even a pleasant harmony. Animals make use of their resources with far greater felicity than these retorted creatures, whose subscription to the human race is well in arrears.

There is no question but that if Jesus Christ, or a great prophet from another religion, were to come back today, he would find it virtually impossible to convince anyone of his credentials despite the fact that the vast evangelical machine on American television is predicated on His imminent return among us sinners.

The truth is really an ambition which is beyond us.

Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.

Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus.

Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.

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

By increasing the size of the keyhole, today's playwrights are in danger of doing away with the door.

Irrespective of nationality, soldiers are always open to the same discomfort and to the same comradeship the world over. I'll make things easy for you if you make things easy for me. That is, after all the unwritten law of the barracks.

I hate being moved. I hate that man who came in. So self-righteous, so cruel. He made fun of me, that's why I cried. You never did that. You led me into temptation by your — politeness.

Laughter would be bereaved if snobbery died.