Peter Ustinov Quotes

I had started by imitating a parrot, which is unusual, in that a parrot is supposed to imitate you. By taking the initiative you allow the parrot no alternative but to be itself, which proves again that attack is often the best defence.

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.

Did you know that every two hours the nations of this world spend as much on armaments as they spend on the children of this world every year?

Generals are fascinating cases of arrested development – after all, at five all of us wanted to be generals.

World Government is not only possible, it is inevitable; and when it comes, it will appeal to patriotism in its truest sense,in its only sense, the patriotism of humans who love their national heritages so deeply that they wish to preserve them in safety for the common good.

I have three daughters and I find as a result I played King Lear almost without rehearsal.

I don’t know why I have these dreams. I’ve never wanted to be Pope. In fact, I have a greater affinity to Martin Luther.

Life was cheap in the Middle Ages. It has become cheaper since. It is only in specific battles for specific lives that our culture is put to the test, and with it our humanity.

All the hideously calculated hypocrisy of men when they commit a murder in the name of justice. Then it’s the time of death on a grander scale, the hour of the great offenses … fix your bayonets boys …gentlemen, synchronize your watches … in ten seconds time the barrage starts … a thousand men are destined to die in order to capture a farmhouse no one has lived in for years…

I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.

Pavarotti is not vain, but conscious of being unique.

I hate being moved. I hate that man who came in. So self-righteous, so cruel. He made fun of me, that’s why I cried. You never did that. You led me into temptation by your – politeness.