Dick Cheney Quotes

An ideologue believes that what is right will work. A pragmatist believes that what works is right.

I'd describe myself as a pragmatist tinged with idealism.

That is what all of us must learn to do in the United States; to limit objectives, to get ourselves away from the absolute, to find out what is within our powers.

In practice, such trifles as contradictions in principle are easily set aside; the faculty of ignoring them makes the practical man.

We have to learn how to work within the limits that are possible, not what is desirable.

While we should never give up our principles, we must also realize that we cannot maintain our principles unless we survive.

I'm a pragmatist.

I'm just not a purist. You set goals and you have to work with everyone to figure out how to get what you can.

Theoretical principals must sometimes give way for the sake of practical advantages.

It is best to live however one can be.

You can't learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

I learned over time that you do not go for the perfect solution….You do what is doable and then you want to try and do a little bit more.

People can be sensitive, so if I need to, I'll suck it up and be more flowery. I'll do what it takes to get the outcome I want. As I like to say, sometimes you have to crouch to conquer.

Never stand so high upon a principle that you cannot lower it to suit the circumstances.

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.

Anybody who witnesses the suffering of animals and has a glimmer of hope of reducing that suffering can't take the position that it's all or nothing. We have to be pragmatic. Screw the principle.

The strongest streak in the American character is a fierce pragmatism that mistrust blind ideology of every stripe and insists on finding what really works.

You must not try to be too pure, you must fly closer to the sea.

...never let a passion for the perfect take precedence over pragmatism.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

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

You can cooperate and not compromise your core values. But I'm a realist with the philosophy that sometimes you've got to take bites out of the apple instead of the whole apple.

I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

The common agenda both sides seem to share is: Whatever works.

You win any which way you can. You do what you have to do to get by. That's the way it works in any job.