Angus King Quotes

Just because you are adversaries or opponents in politics doesn't mean you have to be enemies.

My brother and I have too good a relationship to spoil it by working together.

We have to find compromises. That's the way it is in Norway.

I'm not looking for a battle with anybody, neither the council nor our labor partners.

The ability to compromise is not a diplomatic politeness toward a partner but rather taking into account and respecting your partner's legitimate interests.

When you find somebody who doesn't give and take, you go, 'Remind me never to work with you again.'

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.

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.

Our position is that we can sit down and talk to try to solve our problems through dialogue.

A policy that can be accurately, though perhaps not prudently, defined as one of “peaceful co-existence.”

You cannot shake hands with a clinched fist.

In campaigning, you want to slay your opponent. In governing, you want to make love to your opponent.

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

In peace, as there is more time to spare, the leaders are expected to persuade the rank and file, instead of commanding them.

Our country must be strong enough to solve problems, and that means we must learn how to work together again.

Legislating is a very human experience in which trust and mutual respect play critical roles.

I've got my own mind, and I'll talk about it, but I'm willing to listen. I'm very balanced like that. If you don't want a guy who's balanced, who wants to win, and can bring people together well... I don't know.

There will certainly be times when Merkel and I will have opposing viewpoints. Just the fact that government work adheres to a different set of prerogatives than a party does makes conflicts unavoidable.

Coming from a smaller nation in Central Europe, I have learned pretty soon how important are agreed rules, cooperation, respect for partners and, most of all, willingness to listen and find common solutions.

I think with the right leadership on both sides and the right president, we can get a lot done.

The main aim of the [political] dialogue should be to resolve the problems of the nation, not to find who is the winner and who is the loser. That's not what it's all about. It's to try and find an answer that is acceptable to all parties concerned, which would of course require some give and take.

There's a time for debate and a time for consensus. There's a time for advocacy and time for first principles.

(J)ust to clarify: If you go into every situation saying there's absolutely nothing worth fighting over, you will inevitably end up on a cot sleeping next to a guy named Tiny, bringing him breakfast in his cell every morning, and spending your afternoons ironing his boxers. Or, in the case of the French, you might spend your afternoon rounding up Jews to send to Germany, but you get the point.

The foreign policy is not about changing mindsets. Foreign policy is about finding the common meeting points.

Part of the reason I'm doing Us + Them tour is to play my part in trying to spread the message that cooperation is a better way to resolve conflicts than confrontation. That bridges are better than walls, that nationalism and exceptionalism is destroying our world and destroying our lives.