I can conceive of no more awkward situation for an Ambassador or for any other man under Heaven.

I turned the whole thing over in my mind backward and forward a hundred times every day.

For the first time in this stress and strain, I lost my appetite and digestion and did not know the day of the week nor what month it was--seeing the two governments rushing toward a very serious clash, which would have made my mission a failure and done the Administration much hurt, and have sowed the seeds of bitterness for generations to come.
"One day I said to Anderson (whose assistance is in many ways invaluable): 'Of course nobody is infallible--least of all we.

Is it possible that we are mistaken?
You and Laughlin and I, who are close to it all, are absolutely agreed.

But may there not be some important element in the problem that we do not see?
Summon and nurse every doubt that you can possibly muster up of the correctness of our view, put yourself on the defensive, recall every mood you may have had of the slightest hesitation, and tell me to-morrow of every possible weak place there may be in our judgment and conclusions.' The next day Anderson handed me seventeen reasons why it was unwise to persist in this demand for the adoption of the Declaration of London.