Susan Rice Quotes

The president took the advice of my East Texas grandmother: If you can skin a cat without getting the room all bloody, why not do it that way?

I'm a compromiser and a maneuverer. I try to get something. That's the way our system works.

The Governor is not one who opposes swapping horses while crossing a stream. He will change a horse for a mule, a mule for a goat, and a goat for a shoat. If there is a mane or tail to which to cling, Franklin D. Roosevelt will not scorn to take hold so long as the beast is traveling in his direction.

You can put my dad in any situation and he's going to figure it out. He's going to figure the people out and how to get along, how to make everyone comfortable.

To be always ready a man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied.

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

One of the tests that I frequently use in an interaction is I push on the idea and what I'm looking for is both flexibility & persistence.

It's a necessary quality of a diplomat or a politician that he will compromise. Uncompromising politicians or diplomats get you into the most terrible trouble.

I will deal with the politicians in a political way and with the nonpoliticians in a nonpolitical way.

I just find things that work and embellish them.

Diplomacy is like jazz: endless variations on a theme.

Take whatever happens and try to make it work.

I've learned that in order to achieve what I wanted, it made more sense to negotiate than to defend the autonomy of my work by pounding my fist on the table.

Negotiating is a little like jazz. You improvise on a theme. You know where you want to go, but you’re not always sure how to get there.

I could sit down and talk with the devil if necessary.

Diplomacy is a little bit like Jazz. It’s improvisation on a theme.

I’m very outcomes-oriented—what’s the best way to get there? Sometimes it’s being diplomatic and sometimes it’s being harsh…. So you just have to calibrate and figure out what is the end state you’re trying to get to…. It depends on what you are trying to achieve.

In general ... I tell people not to bang their heads against the wall and to find a compromise.

You don't have to use aggression to squash somebody. You have to use your brain.

The core hacker premise that 'code wins arguments' is just another way of saying that anything is worth trying, regardless of whether it is a conservative or liberal idea, and that whatever works is worth keeping.

If I can utilise anything, I'll utilise it.

Compromise is part of how we get things done.

I work in response to the limitations of any situation and in relationship to what's possible.

I don't have any particular loyalties to one technique or another. I'm just trying to use the best for the job.

I'm very tough. Come to a council meeting, and you'll see it.