Dick Gephardt Quotes

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

Violence is my last option.

Yes, politics IS war without bloodshed; and war is an extension of those politics.

War has rules, mud wrestling has rules - politics has no rules.

Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force.

I will not attempt to deny the reasonableness and necessity of a party war; but in carrying on that war all principles and rules of justice should not be departed from.

Bloodletting is among the ingredients of political medicine.

People versed in politics need not be told that the devil is in the detail, and tough solutions implying the use of force cannot produce a lasting long-term settlement.

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

I do not hold to non-violence for moral reasons, but for political and practical reasons.

I full well realize that politics is a rough and tumble business, but politics should not be reduced to lobbing partisan hand grenades. Politics is not war. Terrorism is.

You can't go to a negotiating table pointing a gun, but you've got to keep it over your shoulder.

What you need to do in conflict resolution is to bring the people who believe that the answer to their political ambitions will be achieved through violence into a frame of mind that they accept that their political ambitions will be delivered by politics.

Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to cope with conflict by peaceful means.

Force in today's world, just as in the past, is what determines rights.

Unless you’re prepared to use force, it’s very difficult to deal with a person who understands only force.

Guns and blockades are not conducive to meaningful dialogue.

Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

There’s no reason to respect anyone’s word in that part of the world. The only thing they respect is force and the threat of force.

There is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended. Conflicts are started by human beings, sustained by human beings, and they can be ended by human beings.

The management of a balance of power is a permanent undertaking, not an exertion that has a foreseeable end.

In great conflicts opportunities for peace are often missed and considerable and unnecessary violence follows.

They should not be knocked down with a bludgeon. They should have their threats cut with a feather.

Wars are ... often the product of the conflicting intentions of decent men who have lost the patience to negotiate.