Peter Ustinov Quotes

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.

At the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords we're all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it.

Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.

As I grow older I find that though I think I'm saying the same things as I always did, people listen to me more.

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.

I am just a man, not fit to do the work of God... or the Devil.

To be gentle, tolerant, wise and reasonable requires a goodly portion of toughness.

In my day, there were things that were done, and things that were not done, and there was even a way of doing things that were not done.

I can never forgive God for having invented the French

Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of.

Robert Vavra is one of these artists, part magician, part alchemist, who is able to create a series of photographs in unforgettable compositions. Only visible are the dunes, the blinding fields of flowers and the vast sky, the epic intimacy of Robert Vavra's vision.

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.

Irrespective of nationality, soldiers are always open to the same discomfort and to the same comradeship the world over. I'll make things easy for you if you make things easy for me. That is, after all the unwritten law of the barracks.

Sex is a conversation carried out by other means. If you get on well out of bed, half the problems of bed are solved.

I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me the most civilised music in the world.

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.

Love is an act of endless forgiveness. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

Two members of my profession who are not urgently needed by my profession, Mr. Ronald Reagan and Mr. George Murphy, entered politics, and they've done extremely well. Since there has been no reciprocal tendency in the other direction, it suggests to me that our job is still more difficult than their new one.

Sometimes I wish I could just fall in love. Then, at least you know who your opponent is.

Laughter would be bereaved if snobbery died.

In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.

The young need old men. They need men who are not ashamed of age, not pathetic imitations of themselves. ... Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth.

And here is the lesson I learned in the army. If you want to do a thing badly, you have to work at it as though you want to do it well.

Life is unfair but remember sometimes it is unfair in your favour.

That weakness in human nature which goes by the name of strength.

Acting on television is like being asked by the captain to entertain the passengers while the ship goes down.

Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.

The great thing about history is that it is adaptable.

I have four children which is not bad considering I'm not a Catholic.

The stupidity of a stupid man is exercised in a restricted field; the stupidity of an intelligent man has a much wider diffusion, and a far greater effect, aided as it is by the element of surprise.

Basically I'm a very serious person, but I think the form it takes with me is comedy. I see the amusing side of all potentially pompous situations.

Pavarotti is not vain, but conscious of being unique.

People are annoyed with the Chinese for not respecting more human rights. But with a population that size it's very difficult to have the same attitude to human rights.

At my age, I'm often asked if I'm frightened of death and my reply is always, I can't remember being frightened of birth.

If history teaches us one thing, than that history teaches us nothing.

Marriage is like a three-speed gearbox - affection, friendship, love. It is not advisable to crash your gears and go right through to love straightaway. You need to ease your way through. The basis of love is respect, and that needs to be learned from affection and friendship.

Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only one day, of modern warfare.

The truth is really an ambition which is beyond us.

Men think about women. Women think about what men think about them

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 duty is to furnish it well.

If you're going to be a prisoner of your own mind, the least you can do is make sure it's well furnished.

The habit of religion is oppressive, an easy way out of thought.

American democracy is the inalienable right to sit on your front porch, in your pyjamas, drinking a can of beer and shouting out 'Where else is this possible?' Which doesn't seem to me to be freedom, really.

We used to have lots of questions to which there were no answers. Now, with the computer, there are lots of answers to which we haven't thought up questions.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

Because they have been in love they have survived everything that life could throw at them, even their own failures.

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