Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE FRSAwas an English actor, writer, and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster, and television presenter. A noted wit and raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. He was also a respected intellectual and diplomat, who in addition to his various academic posts, served as a Goodwill Ambassador...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth16 April 1921
Peter Ustinov quotes about
People at the top of the tree are those without qualifications to detain them at the bottom.
He shows great originality, which must be curbed at all cost
It is of course, reprehensible to steal from others, but plain stupid to steal from yourself
Flogging. The only solution to every problem. I warrant even the culprit himself doesn't know! It was just — his turn!
Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.
I'm convinced there's a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer
The point of living and of being an optimist is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.
At the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords we're all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it.
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.
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.
Life was cheap in the Middle Ages. It has become cheaper since. It is only in specific battles for specific lives that our culture is put to the test, and with it our humanity.
I am an international citizen conceived in Russia, born in England, working in Hollywood, living in Switzerland, and touring the World.
Acting on television is like being asked by the captain to entertain the passengers while the ship goes down.
A diplomat these days in nothing, but a head waiter who is allowed to sit down occasionally.