20 Quotes by Harold Nicolson

Only one person in 1000 is a bore, and HE is interesting because he is one person in 1000.

Few things are more agreeable than the spectacle of a man who loses his temper; we should be grateful to such people for providing us with moments of often unsullied delight.

These, then, are the qualities of my ideal diplomatist. Truth, accuracy, calm, patience, good temper, modesty and loyalty. They are also the qualities of an ideal diplomacy. But, the reader may object, you have forgotten intelligence, knowledge, discernment, prudence, hospitality, charm, industry, courage and even tact. I have not forgotten them. I have taken them for granted.

Peale akvarellmaali pole ühtki teist tegevust, mis oleks amatööridele nii ligitõmbav, kui diplomaatia.

The great secret of a successful marriage is to treat all disasters as incidents and none of the incidents as disasters.

We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.

The Irish do not want anyone to wish them well; they want everyone to wish their enemies ill.

The gift of broadcasting is, without question, the lowest human capacity to which any man could attain.

When I look back upon the more than sixty years that I have spent on this entrancing earth, and when I am asked which of all the changes that I have witnessed appears to me to be the most significant, I am inclined to answer that it is the loss of a