Peter Ustinov (April 14, 1921-March 28, 2004)
Americans believe that freedom was their invention. They have been known to send Peace Corps troops to Athens to teach the Greeks the meaning of democracy.
An optimist is one who knows exactly how sad the world can be, while a pessimist is one who finds out anew every morning.
Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.
Courage is often lack of insight, whereas cowardice in many cases is based on good information.
Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.
Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much.
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.
I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.
I have three daughters and I find as a result I played King Lear almost without rehearsal.
I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me the most civilised music in the world.
I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.
If history teaches us one thing, it is that history teaches us nothing.
If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.
In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.
In the case of the American presidency it is the machine which drives the driver, and the driver is only required to make reassuring gestures of being in charge of the machine.
Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes, and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.
It is of course, reprehensible to steal from others, but plain stupid to steal from yourself.
It is our doubts that unite us and our certainties that divide us.
It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our one duty is to furnish it well.
Parents are the bones upon which children sharpen their teeth.
Politicians only get to the top because they have no qualifications to detain them at the bottom.
Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.
The French and the British are such good enemies that they can't resist being friends.
The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.
The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe that the best is yet to come.
Toronto is New York run by the Swiss.
Uncontrolled photography is one of the blights of our time.
Unfortunately, a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.
Categories: Peter Ustinov, Quotes of the day
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