John Harsanyi Quotes

One might argue that proper understanding of any social situation would require game-theoretic analysis.

Every combination of two or more human beings has both a useful aspect and a political aspect.

Look, not everybody plays well with each other on the playground. I get that, that's politics.

Humans are humans because we are able to communicate with each other and to organize to do things together that we can't do individually.

It's a difficult question of relations between people.

Human beings are social animals; we devote a significant portion of our brain just to dealing with interactions with other humans.

In any group there is more or less tension between people, and there are complicities and affinities.

I worked with a group of people who argued day and night - professors, officials, the Minister of Finance - but there were decisions that I had to make.

Anytime you get nine people together, whether it's at a party or it's in the conference room of the Supreme Court, you do have to maintain some order, or it does kind of degenerate into squabbling pretty quickly.

If you're sitting across the table from someone, the geometry of the situation says 'confrontation.' If you're walking with somebody, you're heading in the same direction, and the spatial dance you're doing is a little more cooperative.

In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same.

The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans.

All animals communicate. What's special about gossip is that it's not about the here and now. You don't gossip about lions. You don't gossip about clouds. You only gossip about other people. And once you do, you can keep track of many more people - this is the basis for forming larger communities.

Many species reciprocate, but only humans gossip, and much of what we gossip about is the vale of other people as partners for reciprocal relationships.

Thinking and feeling that have to do with action in association with others is as much a social mode of behavior as is the most overt cooperative or hostile act.

The action is in the interaction.

Bargaining makes you come up with the best ideas.

I'm not a good collaborator in general.

A simple rule in dealing with those who are hard to get along with is to remember that this person is striving to assert his superiority; and you must deal with him from that point of view.

Engagement is not appeasement. Engagement is not surrender.

A little secret - I'm the child of a shrink. I am; my mom's a shrink, and my father's a lawyer. So believe me, I analyze and negotiate. That is a huge amount of the director's work, especially when you're working with people who - such a variety.

You do not get what you want. You get what you negotiate.

When men organize themselves into groups, and they make rules based on common or self-interest, it's always tangled and political.

I think the job of leadership is to expand what can be talked about and to get consensus on the nature of the problem, and that is most of the job. Because once you do that, once you have diagnosis, treatment options are obvious.

Climbing has worked for me in a number of ways on Capitol Hill. I'm much more inclined to look at what people do, as opposed to what they say. Also, it's about working together - we're all on the rope together, and you don't get to cut the rope if you're not getting along with someone.