Pete Hoekstra Quotes

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

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.

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

Encourage a readiness to find consensus.

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.

Moderation and bipartisan consensus go hand in hand.

I think it is possible to meet people in the middle, to have a discussion even though you may not agree on solutions, and find some common ground and get to consensus.

A leader's job is to find common ground.

We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own ... in order to create this common ground.

We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own turf in order to create this common ground.

There comes a point, in any kind of, whether it's in your family discussions or business or whatever, where you finally have to get over the making of the points and now let's see if we can find common ground.

Compromise works well in this world when you have shared goals.

We aren't going to agree on everything and there will be other areas where we will be working together.

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

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

Compromise, compromise and compromise.

Bipartisanship means you work together to work it out.

We need a lot more respect in this country for compromise…. There is in compromise a lot of integrity, especially political integrity.

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

When you hang the 'bipartisan' tag on something, the perception is that differences have been worked out, and there's a broad agreement that that's the way forward.

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

I'm all in favour of talking to other parties, always have been, always will be. I'm a pluralist, talk to them, see what we've got in common, work together, fine.

We can find common ground only by moving to higher ground.

We come to reason, not to dominate. We do not seek to have our way, but to find a common way.

Solutions must be based on compromises.