A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.

This is diplomatic work,

An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth.

Andrew and I met at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus Law School lecture hall in 1989. Andrew was a dashing young and extremely handsome man with a bright future ahead of him. Andrew comes from a mixed heritage background – his mum Letty is from a white English / Jewish heritage and his dad Charles is a black Nigerian man. He was highly sought after by many young ladies in our university and by other young women within his circle of friends not just for his dashing good looks and charming personality, but he had an outstanding academic background.

He is a person of enormous abilities and professionalism, and is the head of staff of Unite the union.
To manage a very large union and a large number of staff takes special skills, and Andrew has them.

Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.

He’s an order of magnitude better than mere diplomats. He’s a conniver.

A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

You need diplomacy and not slogans. This is the place for wisdom, the place for seeking windows that will take you to the objective.

An ambassador is a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is given an office by the Administration on condition that he leave the country.

Of course, all of you know how much I depend on Andy Young. Andy is valuable in more ways than one. Of course, he's a great diplomat. But there was a time, whenever things were going bad with me and my administration and I didn't want my name to be in the headlines--Andy would always take over, and he saved me from a lot of embarrassing attention. Unfortunately, he taught Bert Lance the same thing the last few weeks. I guess Andy and I are back on our own, beginning this week. As a diplomat, however, Andrew Young is always in there fighting and pitching for our country, giving the world and me new ideas. He's just told me tonight about a brilliant political and diplomatic achievement that we now have in progress; I haven't announced it before. As you know, we have a problem in the Mideast. We have a difficult fight on our hands with the Panama Canal Treaty. I'd say we're lucky that 50 percent of the people favor the treaty. And his proposal is that we give the East Bank to Panama--that we keep the West Bank and make it a Palestinian homeland. Andy and I have not yet decided who would be the ruler of this new entity, but Andy tells me that before long, Ian Smith's going to be looking for a new job.

Never look for complexity in diplomatic decisions. With very few exceptions, actions always devolve—and that’s the exact term—from someone’s self-interest. Not the national self-interest, by the way. We are talking here about individual careers.