Win-Win Solution Quotes

When times are tough, constant conflict may be good politics but in the real world, cooperation works better. After all, nobody's right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day.

The old approach of sacrificing the needs of one group to benefit another just won't work.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both: They are to say what they please, and I am to do as I please.

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

The ultimate case for the third way is that it works …. The third way, in the end, must lift our adversaries as well as our friends.

The politician says: "I will give you what you want." The statesman says: "What you think you want is this. What it is possible for you to get is that. What you really want, therefore, is the following.

If you don’t intend having a compromise, you don’t negotiate at all.

To negotiate is not to do as one likes.

Compromise does not satisfy, but dissatisfies everybody; it does not lead to any general fulfillment, but to general frustration; those who try to become everything to all people end up by not being anything to anyone.

We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it's not just my way or the highway.

It was a remarkably reasonable compromise. It pleased nobody, but everybody signed on.

You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

A grand bargain [with Russia] will not be achieved in a sweeping package that comes together at a single point in time. While attractive to contemplate, such a sudden strategic outcome is a chimera. Our best hope is in saying we will confront where we must but cooperate where we can.

We have to find a way to get the two forms of the game co-existing - and that involves administrators sitting down and banging their heads together and working out a framework. I understand the politics but I'm more interested in what's best for the game.

Give your opponent an out. Look at the crises from his point of view.... Try to pick an option that achieves your purpose at minimal cost to him—military, political or otherwise.

The political equivalent of an immaculate conception: a [legislative] compromise that materializes without any politician having to take the blame.

Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.

Compromise, contrary to popular opinion, does not mean selling out one's principles. Compromise means working out differences to forge a solution which fits the diversity of the body politic.

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.

Let me make it very clear: when I say compromise I do not mean capitulation. When I say compromise I definitely do not mean what Jesus Christ meant when he offered us to turn our other cheek to our enemies. Compromise means, try to meet the other somewhere half-way. And, this can only happen if the other is willing to go half-way in order to meet you. That is the very strict line between compromise and capitulation. I'm a great believer in compromises. I do not believe in capitulation.

I think people forget that bipartisanship is really the burden of the victor, not the loser.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

Bargaining makes you come up with the best ideas.

I'm not big with negotiating.

When we do our legislation, we're not trying to figure out, 'How can I use this to run against you?' We say, 'How can we pass this bill to help both of our constituents?'