Arlen Specter Quotes

When you are President you have to get something done, and that often means compromise.

Consensus is the essence of the legislative process.

We learned once for all [from the Civil War] that compromise makes a good umbrella but a poor roof; that it is a temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.

Obama has been deliberative to a fault and an inveterate seeker of the middle ground.

I don't know how you can govern without ever compromising.

Elected officials, when faced with either-or decisions, inevitably choose both.

President Bush should learn to focus on the shades of grey

There are two kinds of horses; there are show horses, and there are work horses, and you've got to decide in the United States Senate whether you want to be a show horse or a work horse.

Strong men know when to compromise.

If you can’t learn to compromise an issue without compromising yourself then you better not be a legislator and you better not marry.

What good would politics be, if it didn’t give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises?

Politics is about the persuasion required to move people to judgment.

We never go against a candidate for one or two votes. You can’t.

There are times when public men must be able to accept ridicule and defeat, and wait for time either to prove them right, or to give them another chance. There are other times when it is probably wiser to compromise on half victories, so long as the trend is in the right direction. To do this effectively, however, and wisely is a very difficult thing.

It is impossible for a Minister to please the many without displeasing the few

He [Theodore Roosevelt] acted upon the maxim that half a loaf is better than no bread. I believe that half a loaf is fatal whenever it is accepted at the sacrifice of the basic principle sought to be attained.... A half-way measure never fairly tests the principle and many utterly discredit it.

Politicians are elected to reach compromise. We compromise all the time in our daily lives. Is there something dirty about that?

Compromise is the oil that makes government go.

Truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.

With God on their side, Christians have no need for majoritarian politics, or for compromise and accomodation to reach their goal.

Quite frankly, Oklahomans are pretty smart. They know how to choose candidates.

If you're a politician, you can see there might be times when, to secure the greater good, you have to take a backwards step. That is a matter of tactics.

When it comes to being in a band or going solo, one is collaborative, and one is not. But generally speaking, when going solo, I am the boss. People can contribute ideas, but I am the boss. When collaborating, you make compromises and look for a common ground.

Mario Ruiz Massieu's resignation places the ball very firmly in Zedillo's court. A key decision he will have to make is whether he is going to govern with, without, or against his own party.

But I was an utterly hopeless politician and I worked out that I would be much better suited to making money and running businesses than the compromise that is politics.