“Diplomacy and virtue do not make easy companions.”
“Diplomacy is to do and say, the nastiest things in the nicest way.”
“Evil was seductive and easy, and virtue was difficult and unappreciated.”
“That's Irish diplomacy for you.Huh?The ability to tell someone to go to hell and make them happy to be going.”
“The brutes do not admire each other. A horse does not admire his companion. Not that there is no rivalry between them in a race, but that is of no consequence; for, when in the stable, the heaviest and most ill-formed does not give up his oats to another as men would have others do to them. Their virtue is satisfied with itself.”
“Beauty and fear make uneasy companions”