I’m convinced there’s a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.
Meaning of the quote
The quote suggests that the government organization responsible for foreign relations, the Foreign Office, intentionally trains its future diplomats to speak hesitantly or with uncertainty. This implies that the government wants its diplomats to appear less confident or sure of themselves when communicating on behalf of the country, perhaps as a tactic or strategy in their diplomatic work.
About Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov was a renowned British actor, director, and writer who won numerous awards, including two Academy Awards. He was known for his versatility and intellectual prowess, often being referred to as a ‘Renaissance man’. Ustinov was also active in diplomacy and served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and president of the World Federalist Movement.
More quotes from Peter Ustinov
Courage is often lack of insight, whereas cowardice in many cases is based on good information.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
The point of living and of being an optimist is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn’t amount to much.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
A diplomat these days in nothing, but a head waiter who is allowed to sit down occasionally.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
The truth is really an ambition which is beyond us.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
I’m convinced there’s a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
The truth is an ambition which is beyond us.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
The habit of religion is oppressive, an easy way out of thought.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Laughter would be bereaved if snobbery died.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven’t got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
I have four children which is not bad considering I’m not a Catholic.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
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.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Corruption is nature’s way of restoring our faith in democracy.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Men think about women. Women think about what men think about them.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
If Botticelli were alive today he’d be working for Vogue.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Pavarotti is not vain, but conscious of being unique.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
The French and the British are such good enemies that they can’t resist being friends.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
It is youth that has discovered love as a weapon.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
By increasing the size of the keyhole, today’s playwrights are in danger of doing away with the door.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
At the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords we’re all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me the most civilised music in the world.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Sex is a conversation carried out by other means. If you get on well out of bed, half the problems of bed are solved.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
The social sciences were for all those who had not yet decided what to do with their lives, and for all those whose premature frustrations led them into the sterile alleys of confrontation.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Books, I don’t know what you see in them. I can understand a person reading them, but I can’t for the life of me see why people have to write them.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
I have three daughters and I find as a result I played King Lear almost without rehearsal.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
Monica Seles: I’d hate to be next door to her on her wedding night.
British actor, writer and director (1921-2004)