Ustinov Quotes

I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine.

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

Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.

Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, it is our duty to furnish it well.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious

Unfortunately, a superabundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

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

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.

It is our responsibilities not ourselves that we should take seriously.

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.

The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.

If Botticelli were alive today he'd be working for Vogue.

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come

Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much.

It was the sort of situation that would be ever so charming and warmly human in a film with Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith but that sort of film is only charming because they leave out so many details, and real life is all the details they leave out.

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

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

unfortuneately a super abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential of nightmares

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

The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay off my American Express Bill" - Peter Ustinov, 1921-2004

Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich,’ Peter Ustinov the playwright recently observed with succinct clarity. Although

The truth is really an ambition which is beyond us

Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our one duty is to furnish it well.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Ein Philosoph ist ein Mann, der in Ermangelung einer Frau die ganze Welt umarmt.

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.

The Elliott-Ustinov partnership proved extraordinarily effective but rather fattening: a fine chef, Klop tended to turn up unexpectedly, carrying rognons de veau à la liégeoise inside a leather top-hat case.

Better we see them seeing us, because then we can all see together, but when not seeing them seeing us we might not see them seeing us doing what we are doing. MI5 agent Iona von Ustinov (father of actor Peter Ustinov) to MI6 agent Desmond Bristow about the PDVE (Portuguese Secret Police) in 1944.

Without the Oxford comma, you can give people the wrong idea. Famously, the London Times newspaper once ran a brief description of a television documentary featuring Peter Ustinov, promising: Highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

Politicians only get to the top because they have no qualifications to detain them at the bottom.

The lack of a personal core is at the base of such men, the inability to support doubt in any form, the fear of facing themselves...

Courage is often lack of insight, whereas cowardice in many cases is based on good information.

The Times once published an unintentionally humorous description of a Peter Ustinov documentary, noting that “highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector”. This is ambiguous as it stands, and would still be ambiguous if a serial comma were added, as Mandela could then be mistaken for a demigod.

Cook's comic gift was a public blessing. It could also be a private curse. 'It was almost an affliction,' says Bird. 'At least my mind can take a rest from that. I can and do turn it off when I go home and you felt that Peter never did and never could. 'the weight's off my shoulders now,' said Peter Ustinov, formerly the world's funniest man, after seeing Cook perform. 'The accolade, for what it's worth, belongs to him. It's a vast relief.

People at the top of the tree are those without qualifications to detain those at the bottom

I love history. It's so old." - Attributed to Peter Ustinov.

According to at least one general staff officer, no one ever actually ordered the invasion of Afghanistan. Instead, between December 10 and 30, various units were given some thirty various directives to prepare for action. Defense Minister Ustinov’s lack of combat experience helps explain the absence of centralized implementation. A career spent building the military-industrial complex gave him scant knowledge of how to command the invasion of a sovereign state. Since it was beneath the marshal to ask subordinates for advice, staff activity remained largely uncoordinated.

Like pornographers fretting under the burden of their wish dreams, these obscene buffoons suddenly found it unnecessary to assuage their fever among the pages of forbidden books or to pay for relief in some bordello, because a government of lonely fanatics swept into power and gradually lent official sanction to the dirtiest, saddest aspects of human nature, the lack of imagination which leads the ill to put their most libidinous nightmares into practice.

Sfortunatamente una sovrabbondanza di sogni comporta un crescente potenziale di incubi.

Klop Ustinov, Russian-born German journalist, secret agent for Britain and father of the actor Peter Ustinov. Photo: PRIVATE COLLECTION

George Devine's disapproval of Fry, Ustinov and John Whiting was almost startling in its bitterness: 'They're all absolute shit.' It was a little breathtaking. I was only accustomed to this kind of throw-away vehemence from myself.