Julia Moore Quotes

My father had been in the German Diplomatic Service, and although he had been in the United States since World War II and out of diplomacy, it was something that was very much talked about in the family. So when I went to college, it was always my intention to try to get into the Foreign Service.

The future does not belong to those who attack our Embassies and Consulates and kill our Ambassadors. The Angel of Death in the form of an American Bald Eagle will visit you and wreak havoc and destruction upon your existence.

Throughout history, ambassadors have always been symbolic incarnations of the sovereignty of their nations and the dignity of their leaders.

Even we schoolchildren know that ordinary diplomats don't drive around in unmarked cars carrying Glock pistols.

I had to leave the Foreign Service to do the two things I joined it to do—negotiate, and make policy.

Ambassadors are the eyes and ears of states.

I intend to ruin the Foreign Service. I mean ruin it—the old Foreign Service—and to build a new one. I’m going to do it.

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

It is an ambassador's duty to stand up for his nation's foreign policy in any era and under any government whatsoever. Ambassadors are, in the full meaning of the term, titled spies.

In most cases, cables are marked secret not because the U.S. requires it but because those speaking to us - the foreign leaders across the table - do. They are not keeping secrets from us, but from two other groups: their enemies and their subjects.

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

When the ambassadors of other foreign countries come to Japan to make treaties, they can be told that such and such a treaty has been made with the ambassador of the United States, and they will rest satisfied with this.

Ambassadors are, by definition, foreign bodies.

I was initially assigned to the American Consulate in Aden, not as Principal Officer but as a supernumerary officer to handle Yemen affairs. We had no resident diplomatic mission in Yemen at the time. People from Aden went up to Yemen regularly.

People also don't care about the daily comings and goings of diplomats and yet we must report it.

We will definitely not allow the killing of our Iraqi Ambassador to deny us the right to have an ambassador.

If you operate any kind of major diplomacy, you must run some risk.

There isn't any rule in diplomacy that can't be broken.... There are times when diplomatic principles should be violated, but when you violate them you ought to know you're violating them.

When the President picks up the phone and calls the Prime Minister, what does it mean to be an ambassador?

Because we're so visible, American diplomats are often the biggest target in town.

Tell the Arch-Duchess that she may boss her own immigrants, but she can't boss the American consul.

If we start seeing one ambassador I don’t know how we’re going to avoid seeing the other 113 …. I don’t see what mileage we get in seeing 80 African ambassadors.

An ambassador also serves as an emblem of the country that appoints him.

Yes, sir, from Constantinople, or from the Brazils; from Turk or Christian; from black or white; from the dey of Algiers or the bey of Tunis; from the devil himself, if he wore a crown, we should receive a minister.

'Daughters of Britannia' is a fascinating book, not least because it shines a light on a very dark corner of Foreign Office dealings. Diplomatic spouses are the Aunt Sallys of the foreign service: responsible for nearly everything, recognised for almost nothing.