Brian Clough Quotes

… adjudged not to him who had the truth on his side, but by the last word in the dispute.

Sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness, oftentimes, you can't make the right sort of settlement, so I'm aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me.

You have to pick your battles on set.

You know, you pick and choose your battles.

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face.

Particularly when you're dealing with very high ranking people, you know, you have to get their attention, they are used to, by their rank, of having their own way and doing their own thing and when it's necessary to all work together on something, sometimes you have to hit the mule between the eyes of the two by four to get its attention.

There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument—and that is to avoid it.

If through any misunderstanding or obstinacy on the part of the Fire Keepers, they render a decision at variance with that of the Two Houses, the Two Houses shall reconsider the matter and if their decisions are jointly the same as before, they shall report to the Fire Keepers who are then compelled to confirm their joint decision

I started to fight with the men. I raised my voice, and they started listening to me.

One should not maintain a dispute.

I just want to fight and not talk too much.

I have a lot of power. Here, I can decide: training at six in the morning! Training 11 in the night! But my style is not to impose. I would like to convince the players of what they are doing. This takes more time.

Some of the best preparation I had for coming to Congress is being a football referee. Because you've got to make a decision, and no matter what you do, someone's unhappy with you.

To constitute a dispute there must be two parties. To understand it well, both parties and all the circumstances must be fully heard; and to accommodate the differences, temper and mutual forbearance are requisite.

Men resort to talking only when they haven't the power to enforce their convictions upon others.

It is often argued that the people who will be affected by a major decision should be involved in it. Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal in southern Africa, once resolved a dispute between two brothers about a land inheritance they were to share. Kruger's decision: let one brother divide the land, and let the other brother have first choice.

A long dispute means both parties are wrong.

There was something special about watching a manager and umpire both convinced they were totally right, but knowing that one had to be wrong. As an ump, those moments made my job fun, and getting 'nose-to-nose' was part of my job description.

I don't have problems with nobody, period.

Conflict is always fun to play.

I'm a mediator by training and inclination.

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.

Nowadays, if you are afraid of confrontation, you are not going to do very well.

Through the centuries, men of law have been persistently concerned with the resolution of disputes in ways that enable society to achieve its goals with a minimum of force and maximum of reason.

When people disagree with you, what you ultimately have to do is persuade people to agree with you - period.