People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as exotic but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.
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How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.
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Foreign diplomats in Rome disconsolately say, Italy is the opposite of Russia. In Moscow nothing is known, yet everything is clear. In Rome everything is public, there are no secrets, everybody talks, things are at times flamboyantly enacted, yet one understands nothing.
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Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
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Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it.... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.
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I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.
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I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Mtro.
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I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.
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Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.
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