Everett Dirksen Quotes

You can't write laws in America if you don't compromise.

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

Let us give our Republic not the best possible laws but the best which they will bear.

I will not be making appointments to a committee that is not bipartisan.

Above all else stands the burning question of bipartisanship. Whatever else the politicians might say they're about, our news analysts know that this is the true object of the nation's desire, the topic to which those slippery presidential spokesmen need always to be dragged back.

If I can't negotiate something that gets more than four Republicans, I'm not a very good representative of my party.

When I was elected governor of my state, I had a legislature 87 percent Democrat. It was not lost on me that to get anything done, I couldn't be attacking them. I had to find ways to reach out to them.

Goodness knows, we have horrible problems to face in this Congress. I hope we can face them as colleagues in working unitedly for the people of this country and certainly not indulging in animosity or referring to each other as ''enemies.''

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

Nearly all legislation is the result of compromise.

It's harder to pass a law than stop one.

There’s a sausage machine on Capitol Hill. We’ve given the sausage machine the right kind of ingredients. Now it’s up to the sausage machine to turn out the right kind of legislation.

The public happiness is the true object of legislation, and can be secured only by the masses of mankind themselves awakening to the knowledge and the care of their own interests.

Legislation is the art of compromise.

Now, look, it's true, Americans do want leaders that will come to Washington, D.C. and work together to get things done, but that comes with a very important caveat, it depends what they're trying to do.

The system requires bipartisanship.

If politicians of both parties would spend more time legislating and less time attacking each other, we would all be better off.

Labour's approach is not about what is politically right, it is about what is right for the country.

The interests of a nation, when well understood, will be found to coincide with their moral duties.

We are there to be an opposition to the Democratic philosophy and the only way to do that is through confrontation.

Consensus is the essence of the legislative process.

If you really want to get something done in Washington, it has to be done in a bi-Partisan way.

If I could solve these problems with passing laws in the Congress, I would do so.

This is good government. We have divided government. To make divided government work you can’t ask each other to compromise core principles…. We ask each other to find common ground for the common good.

That is a good bill. If you can beat it, go on and beat it, but you ought to give me a fair shake.