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

I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them.

Let my enemies devour each other.

Here in the West, people often don’t like listening to their leaders, even if they are right.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

The art which we may call generally art of the wayside, as opposed to that which is the business of men’s lives, is, in the best sense of the word, Grotesque.

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

My heroes don’t have anything special. They have something to tell other people but they don’t know how, so they talk to themselves.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

All wars signify the failure of conflict resolution mechanisms, and they need post-war rebuilding of faith, trust and confidence.

A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

Part of what confuses people in times of upheaval is that you’re getting so many different points of view and directions and so and so, how to do this and do that. And a lot of it is written in a language that honestly most people cannot understand.

I grew up in an environment where being polite was taken as a weakness. So I just fought everybody.

The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.

In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.

I particularly like Twitter, because it’s short and can be very funny and informative. It’s a little bit like having your own radio program.

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

I there represent that I sent notice of my method to Mr. Leibnitz before he sent notice of his method to me, and left him to make it appear that he had found his method before the date of my letter.

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else’s affairs.

If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.

If you can’t hear me, it’s because I’m in parentheses.

I let the dog out, or I let him in, and we talk some. I let him know I like him, and he lets me know he likes me.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

To a guy like me, a laugh is full of information.

When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, ‚Did you sleep good?‘ I said ‚No, I made a few mistakes.‘

Debates, I hate.

We don’t get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

You can’t talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

I never called my work an ‚art‘. It’s part of show business, the business of building entertainment.

Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.

For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible.

The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.

A speech idiosyncrasy, in the same way as an air quote, is really justifiable only if it’s employed very sparingly and if the user consciously intends to be using it.

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like ‚Bird,‘ I use 90% black people.

Both times I was in India, I could not get people to listen to each other. I had to literally tell people to listen to each other and tell them that they can’t get creative and find alternate solutions if they don’t listen to each other. There’s a lot of arguing and justifying.

Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.

It may happen sometimes that a long debate becomes the cause of a longer friendship. Commonly, those who dispute with one another at last agree.

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.

We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.

In a budget, how important is art versus music versus athletics versus computer programming? At the end of the day, some of those trade-offs will be made politically.

Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of ‚like‘ has spread through the idiom of the young. And it’s true that in some cases the term has become simultaneously a crutch and a tic, driving out the rest of the vocabulary as candy expels vegetables.

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‚You don’t know how to use the English language,‘ or ‚How could you make that argument?‘ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.

I used to get into a lot of fights.