Ian Hacking Quotes

Through the centuries, men of law have been persistently concerned with the resolution of disputes in ways that enable society to achieve its goals with a minimum of force and maximum of reason.

I can imagine no society which does not embody some method of arbitration.

I hope everybody will go back to the negotiating table. I've always said this is the only way forward.

The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.

Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes.

The courts of this country should not be the places where resolution of disputes begins. They should be the places where the disputes end after alternative methods of resolving disputes have been considered and tried.

You have to listen to adversaries and keep looking for that point beyond which it's against their interests to keep on disagreeing or fighting.

I think we can work through a lot of these issues.

If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they can fix it up.

Only negotiations can resolve long standing grievances.

There is no conflict that can’t be solved.

We have to get it into our heads once and for all that we cannot settle disputes by eliminating human beings.

I just want to fight and not talk too much.

We can prevent fighting by limiting weapons or finding nonviolent ways to end disputes.

I do believe that any conflict has a better chance of being resolved if two people can come face to face.

I deal with conflicts that irritate people and give them stress, like the dispute over a car payment. I can resolve those cases in a moment.

To constitute a dispute there must be two parties. To understand it well, both parties and all the circumstances must be fully heard; and to accommodate the differences, temper and mutual forbearance are requisite.

Even when the views are contradictory, talks are the only way forward and problems should be resolved through dialogue.

I realized the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby -- not even money, certainly not my soul.

It is often argued that the people who will be affected by a major decision should be involved in it. Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal in southern Africa, once resolved a dispute between two brothers about a land inheritance they were to share. Kruger's decision: let one brother divide the land, and let the other brother have first choice.

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

Surely, serious problems can't be solved just by talking about them.

I'm a mediator by training and inclination.

I hope to use dialogue and culture as a means of bringing people of various cultures together, and using that as a way to resolve conflict.

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.