Malayan Proverb Quotes

Yielding is sometimes the best way of succeeding.

It's a necessary quality of a diplomat or a politician that he will compromise. Uncompromising politicians or diplomats get you into the most terrible trouble.

Fight as hard as you can, and then understand there's going to have to be some amount of reasonable compromise.

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.

Better is to bow than break.

Let no one think that flexibility and a predisposition to compromise is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.

I've learned that in order to achieve what I wanted, it made more sense to negotiate than to defend the autonomy of my work by pounding my fist on the table.

Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way.

These, then, are the qualities of my ideal diplomatist. Truth, accuracy, calm, patience, good temper, modesty and loyalty. They are also the qualities of an ideal diplomacy. But, the reader may object, you have forgotten intelligence, knowledge, discernment, prudence, hospitality, charm, industry, courage and even tact. I have not forgotten them. I have taken them for granted.

Persistence in one opinion has never been considered a merit in political leaders.

Better bow than break.

I'm a compromiser and a maneuverer. I try to get something. That's the way our system works.

Diplomacy is a little bit like Jazz. It’s improvisation on a theme.

Strong men know when to compromise.

Diplomacy takes time.

A huge amount of negotiations and diplomacy has nothing to do with bartering or arguing but is just trying to get everyone [doing the negotiating] on the same page. It takes yours, days, even weeks sometimes.

Can I be blunt? Yes. Can I be diplomatic? Yes. Can I concoct a mixture of vinegar and honey when the circumstances warrant? Yes.

Be firm on principle but flexible on method.

That the soft overcomes the hard, and the yielding overcomes the resistant, is a fact known by all, but practiced by few.

One of the tests that I frequently use in an interaction is I push on the idea and what I'm looking for is both flexibility & persistence.

Things change. There has to be flexibility. Let me give you an example. President Xi, we have a, like, a really great relationship. For me to call him a currency manipulator and then say, “By the way, I'd like you to solve the North Korean problem,” doesn't work. So you have to have a certain flexibility, Number One. Number Two, from the time I took office till now, you know, it's a very exact thing. It's not like generalities.

I can cope with nine of them, so they ought to be able to stand one of me. They could end the tiresomeness and stubbornness by giving me what I want.

It is fitting for a great nation to yield.

I'm a great believer in compromises. I do not believe in capitulation.

A diplomat is a man who thinks twice before he says nothing.