Peter Ustinov Quotes

"A diplomat these days is nothing but a head waiter who`s allowed to sit down occasionally"

"...the great thing about history is that it is adaptable."

"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."

"Two members of my profession who are not urgently needed by my profession, Mr. Ronald Reagan and Mr. George Murphy, entered politics, and they`ve done extremely well. Since there has been no reciprocal tendency in the other direction, it suggests to me that our job is still more difficult than their new one."

On critics: "They search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find."

"The habit of religion is oppressive, an easy way out of thought."

"Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them."

"I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilized music in the world."

`When Rosalind Hicks, Agatha Christie`s daughter, first saw me, she said, `That`s not Poirot.` I said, `It is now, my dear.`" (regarding his portrayal of supersleuth Hercule Poirot)

"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich." - On the Iraq war in 2003

People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven`t got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.

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.

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.

I believe that the Jews have made a contribution to the human condition out of all proportion to their numbers: I believe them to be an immense people. Not only have they supplied the world with two leaders of the stature of Jesus Christ and Karl Marx, but they have even indulged in the luxury of following neither one nor the other.

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

There was a great campaign to make life difficult for Vladimir Putin when he came in. Nobody ever mentions that George Bush senior was head of the CIA. What`s the difference between the CIA and the KGB? Except that probably the KGB are more thorough, intelligent, and more respectful of foreign traditions. - On Russo-American relations

The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.

People are annoyed with the Chinese for not respecting more human rights. But with a population that size it`s very difficult to have the same attitude to human rights.

You can`t fight terrorism without becoming a terrorist yourself. - On the American and British invasion of Afghanistan in 2001

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can`t be done.

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

Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn`t amount to much.

I suppose you can`t blame Gorbachev (for the collapse of the Soviet Union), but it is his fault for making America the only superpower.

Did you know that every two hours the nations of this world spend as much on armaments as they spend on the children of this world every year?

Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of.

To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.

Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.

World government is not only possible, it is inevitable; and when it comes, it will appeal to patriotism in its truest, in its only sense, the patriotism of men who love their national heritages so deeply that they wish to preserve them in safety for the common good.

Mervyn LeRoy, the director of Quo Vadis, gave me this gem of advice on how to play the Emperor Nero: `The way I see Nero, this is the kinda guy who plays with himself nights`.

They require the kind of courage that none of us would have. It`s a kind of courage that`s very hard to understand. And it`s our duty to try to understand it because it is the courage of desperation. And what is the difference between somebody who goes into a coffee house with the intention of killing as many people as possible - and does so - and somebody who`s in an aeroplane at the height of five miles, unobtainable by any anti-aircraft gun, and lets their bombs drop as scientifically as possible, in order to kill as few people as possible? I guarantee that the one who tries to kill as few people as possible will kill many more than the one who goes into a snack bar and blows himself or herself up. But in this campaign, I wonder how many of the people who have been killed were terrorists? I think very, very few. To my mind, it`s a big lie. - On Palestinian suicide bombers

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

In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.

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

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

Monica Seles: I`d hate to be next door to her on her wedding night.

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.