Bill Keller Quotes

The alternative to fanaticism and to death is not some miraculous realization that someone has been wrong and he has to apologize. No, the answer to fanaticism and to death is curiosity and compromise and concession.

If I believe in something, I will fight for it with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing. Professional liberals want the fiery debate. They glory in defeat. The hardest job for a politician today is to have the courage to be a moderate. It's easy to take an extreme position.

Moderates tend more than ideologues to be other-directed types who respond to external pressure.

I'm not an extremist, you know.

I'm quite moderate.

Mere human beings cant afford to be fanatical about anything. Not even about justice or loyalty. The fanatic for justice ends by murdering a million helpless people to clear a space for his law-courts. If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises.

Any policy that is extreme we must avoid.

I'm conservative on some things, and I'm not on others.

I'm certainly not a hard liner, that's clear.

People ask me if I'm liberal or conservative. I say neither - I'm pragmatic.

I tend to be what I would call more progressive than conservative, but I think either extreme is excessive.

Be not too strict - too far east is west. You may lose all by demanding all.

I think President Obama is a committed, practicing nonideologue. He's consumed by neither tactics nor ideology. He is more concerned about outcomes than he is about process and categorizations.

You have to maintain your principles but have a broader appeal.

Centrism is bogus.

When the Tea Party comes to town, compromise goes out the door.

I hate the fact that people think 'compromise' is a dirty word.

I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it.

The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude.

I've found that balance is key. I'm no longer an extremist in any one direction.

In politics the middle way is none at all.

I do not come bearing a party label on my sleeve - or a quick fix in my back pocket. I do not come with a rigid ideology in my heart - or a soul that tells me to go it alone. I do not come to uproot tradition - or to be imprisoned by it.

It is easy to be tolerant of the principles of other people if you have none of your own.

I'm an independent, straight in the middle. I've donated to candidates that I thought would be good that are Republican and Democrats alike.

While splendidly progressive it is at the same time, amply conservative and sound.