Charles Duke Quotes

Nearly all legislation is the result of compromise.

All legislation of any consequence is a compromise. You have to recognize that.

Compromise is the key element. The more constraints you have, the more compromise you have to have. But, I personally believe that, when that happens, you have to get more creative, and you end up with something that is even better.

Everybody trades off in some sense or another.

Compromises make all of us swallow hard.

We should never allow ourselves to be bullied by an either-or. There is often the possibility of something better than either of these two alternatives.

Bargaining makes you come up with the best ideas.

You can't buy something which does not exist. In a way, let's make things exist and then judge later. Don't cancel the process of creativity too early; let it flow.

Some of the projects we've proposed over the years have been refused. But we never do other people's ideas; our ideas come out of our two hearts and our two heads.

I have a good idea every two years. Give me a topic, I will give you the idea!

The best is the enemy of the good.

It's not enough to tell people to be creative; they need to know how, and what to create.

Creativity is a spark. It can be excruciating when we're rubbing two rocks together and getting nothing. And it can be intensely satisfying when the flame catches and a new idea sweeps around the world.

I would consider myself an inventor at heart, or reinventor.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.

The compromise will always be more expensive than either of the suggestions it is compromising.

But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

If you look through history, all of the great work we've done in Congress has been around a table of compromise, when it comes to the most difficult problems.

When you are President you have to get something done, and that often means compromise.

A result of accommodation and compromise cannot be supposed perfectly to coincide with any one’s idea of perfection.

The only way to deal with gridlock is compromise. And if we compromise, it means we’ll have a confused policy.

There is nothing more contemptible than half-measures.

The Congress is the place where ordinary mortals go about the business of compromise—of compromise that gets us through the day.