I do believe that in order to be a successful negotiator that as a diplomat, you have to be able to put yourself into the other person’s shoes. Unless you can understand what is motivating them, you are never going to be able to figure out how to solve a particular problem.

The Iranians have shot down drones. They tried to destroy the Saudi oil fields. They tried to storm our embassy. So, when my Democratic friends say we need appeasement, well appeasement hasn’t worked. And I think that we’ve learned, with respect to Iran, that weakness invites the wolves.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

You hear about actors being late and all that sort of stuff, but you never find that with an actor who’s directed, because an actor who’s directed understands all the problems your production is going through.

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.

I’m just hoping that people understand that Islam is peace and not violence.

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.

When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill.

Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that’s what a number of us are trying to do.

People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can’t knock it.

Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others.

Stay humble and be concerned for the less fortunate.

We should understand the source of our authority and something of the keys that control its power.

I’m always interested in what you can do with technology that people haven’t thought of doing yet.

I don’t know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there’s a good English phrase for it – cold war.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

We should play free football, defend lively with a passion, and have the best understanding in offence.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother.

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

When you hear people making hateful comments, stand up to them. Point out what a waste it is to hate, and you could open their eyes.

As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!

The problem with car dealerships is you’ve already decided what you want to buy before you even go there, and you’re really just going there to talk through some annoying negotiation.

Science is nothing but perception.

An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.

We’re in very bad trouble if we don’t understand the planet we’re trying to save.

We’re not trying to make you less of a man. We just want you to love us as deeply and as wholesomely and as fully as we love you.

If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.

The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Love other human beings as you would love yourself.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

At first when I heard about climate change, I was a climate denier. I didn’t think it was happening. Because if there really was an existential crisis like that, that would threaten our civilisation, we wouldn’t be focusing on anything else. That would be our first priority. So I didn’t understand how that added up.

What I remember as a child is that other kids didn’t care about suffering. I always did.

Technique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it.

We have practiced diplomacy since the very beginning of the nation. Sometimes it has not worked, and we’ve had to go to war. I always believe you should try to find peace and reconciliation before conflict. That has been the approach I’ve taken.

Never elated when someone’s oppressed, never dejected when another one’s blessed.

We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You’re always helping people.

Previous generations understood about death, and undoubtedly would have seen a reasonable amount of death. Once you get into the Victorian era, you might well have seen the funerals of many of your siblings before you were very old.

I have to be in tune. All the time. I have to be in tune with my husband, where he is, how he’s feeling. I have to be in tune with where my family is.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way.

I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.

The second time around, I’ll understand that, as a husband, my wife doesn’t care about my opinions. I just need to tell her the things that will continue to help me stack the brownie points.

A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.

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

If you’re a politician, you might want to learn the Buddhist way of negotiation. Restoring communication and bringing back reconciliation is clear and concrete in Buddhism.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.

Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute.

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, ‚Oh, I forgot that bit,‘ then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you’ve figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is!

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

Never find fault with the absent.

To understand the power of the priesthood, we must know its limitations.