Louis B. Rosenberg Quotes

If we can’t agree on the facts, how can we agree on the solutions?

By nature, I am a unifier. I am a builder of consensus. I don't believe in sloppy compromise. But I do believe in bringing people together.

You need people that are willing to talk to the other side, or you're never going to get anything done. You need to be willing to expand your ground. There's always usually a place on issues where you can find common ground.

If there are differences of views or divergence of ideas, they can be resolved through discussion and dialogue.

We've got to take confrontation out of the centre of politics. With fighting, no one wins; with dialogue, everyone wins.

Solutions must be based on compromises.

Consensus building doesn't necessarily fit with my experience.

Consensus isn't just about agreement. It's about changing things around: You get a proposal, you work something out, people foresee problems, you do creative synthesis. At the end of it, you come up with something that everyone thinks is okay. Most people like it, and nobody hates it.

Unless you are willing to compromise, society cannot live together.

We Liberal Democrats believe in dialogue. We believe in cooperation with both sides of industry and between both sides of industry. And we believe in the language of cooperation. We reject the language of confrontation.

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.

In politics, you must let the other person have your way.

I sure tried to help deliver compromise, consensus, bipartisanship.

You cannot compromise unless people talk to you.

I believe any time that both parties are talking, it's a good thing.

That is where consensus-building begins-with the idea that you have your own truth, but that the negotiator on the other side of the table has his own truth as well.

The main purpose of dialogue is to come to an agreement on how the two parties can work together, realize their mutual interests, and avoid conflict as much as possible

Negotiations can create conditions that can lead to solutions.

Compromise, compromise and compromise.

The two parties should be turning to each other rather than on each other.

Activism is a very admirable way to create change, but it has to go hand in hand with personal contact with the people with whom we have opposing points of view; without that, there will never be any movement.

The best way to promote and protect opportunity is through collaboration, consensus-building, and pragmatic problem-solving. Throughout nearly 30 years in public service, I have approached tough challenges by making room for as many people as possible around the table in search of common ground.

Good governance requires working toward common ground. It isn't easy.

We cannot agree on everything but we must agree on the framework.

I believe the answers to most problems that confront us around the world can and should be approached by engaging both friend and foe in dialogue. No, I don't naively think that dialogue always works, but I believe we should avoid the rigidity of saying that dialogue never works.