Peter Ustinov
Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE, was a British actor, writer and dramatist.
He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, director, stage designer, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter.
A noted wit and raconteur, he was, for much of his career, a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits, as well as a respected intellectual and diplomat who, in addition to his various academic posts, served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and President of the World Federalist Movement.
Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards over his life, including Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards, as well the recipient of governmental honours from, amongst others, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He displayed a unique cultural versatility that has frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance Man.
“Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.”
“If Botticelli were alive today he'd be working for Vogue.”
“Bildung ist wichtig, vor allem wenn es gilt, Vorurteile abzubauen. Wenn man schon ein Gefangener seines eigenen Geistes ist, kann man wenigstens dafür sorgen, dass die Zelle anständig möbliert ist.”
“Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much.”
“I am an optimist, unrepentant and militant. After all, in order not to be a fool, an optimist must know what a sad place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds this out anew every day.”
“If history teaches us one thing, than that history teaches us nothing.”
“The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come”
“If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.”
“I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilized music in the world. ”
“There are experts in little things but there are no experts in big things. There are experts in this fact and that fact but there are no moral experts.”
“In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.”
“Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, it is our duty to furnish it well.”
“It is our responsibilities not ourselves that we should take seriously.”
“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious”
“Unfortunately, a superabundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares”
“Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.”
“The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.”
“Love is an act of endless forgiveness; a tender look which becomes a habit.”
“I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine.”