Stephen Fry Quotes

Compromise is a skill, and like all skills it atrophies from lack of use.

Compromise is when you do what I tell you and I do what I want. ~Tiny Cooper

Rachel, we've been over this. This is what I do," he said, crumbs of whiten cheese falling from the knife. "Find a way for your lofty, unrealistic ideals to deal with it.

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

If after negotiations there are still some differences outstanding between us, the differences will be adjusted by arms.

Bargaining is a repulsive habit; compromise is one of the highest human virtues - the difference between the two being that the first is practised on the Continent, the latter in Great Britain.

I get the reason that you should be willing to negotiate sometimes. But you also ought to be willing to throw a punch.

compromise is the work of mature people.

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.

Compromise is like the middle of the road; always safer to walk on than the edges.

Compromise is the door through which deception enters.

Only a fool wants a confrontation and only a fool wants a strike.

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

But we have to find ways of compromising when we disagree on something. You know what compromise is, right?" "Uh-huh. It's when you don't get to have everything your way and I don't get to have everything my way, and no one's happy.

I'm not good at compromise.

I'm a great believer in compromise. I know it's not popular among young idealists. Compromise is not popular. It's not at all popular among young people who these days call themselves "activists." They think compromises are dishonest, opportunistic, humiliating. Not in my vocabulary. In my vocabulary, the word "compromise" is synonymous to the word "life".

For us, compromise never means surrender, but a step forward and some rest. That is all and nothing else.

Negotiating in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.

We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise.

I'm optimistic because I'm pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.

The only thing you think of is that you are in the middle and that you've got to find a way to stop it.

Sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness, oftentimes, you can't make the right sort of settlement, so I'm aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me.

I worked with a group of people who argued day and night - professors, officials, the Minister of Finance - but there were decisions that I had to make.

The fellow who says he'll meet you halfway usually thinks he's standing on the dividing line.

It's time to recognize what compromise means: no side wins or loses all.