James Madison Quotes

Compromise, compromise and compromise.

The genius of the Constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.

Solutions must be based on compromises.

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

Compromises may not make great heroes, but they do make great democracies.

If by the statement that what the Constitution meant at the time of its adoption it means today, it is intended to say that the great clauses of the Constitution must be confined to the interpretation which the framers, with the conditions and outlook of their time would have placed upon them, the statement carries its own refutation. It was to guard against such a narrow conception that Chief Justice Marshall uttered a memorable warning— ‘We must never forget that it is a Constitution we are expounding ... a constitution intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.’

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.

We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise.

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

Let no one think that flexibility and a predisposition to compromise is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.

One thing I learned particularly at Yale was how to work with others. Having studied so long trying to master myself, the biggest challenge was learning about the other person's work.

But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.

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.

Yielding is sometimes the best way of succeeding.

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

A result of accommodation and compromise cannot be supposed perfectly to coincide with any one’s idea of perfection.

The American Constitution has changed, is changing, and by the law of its very existence must continue to change, in its substance and practical working even its words remain the same.

There is no probability that a vote of two thirds can be commanded for any amendment of the Constitution touching slavery …

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

… tough times is a strong argument with many of us to stretch the Constitution

It is a further boast that a regular mode of making proper alterations has been providently inserted into the Constitution itself.

We must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding ... a constitution intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adopted to the various crises of human affairs.

You don't compromise principles, but you harmonize tactics to preserve unity.

This [nullification] is a normal and traditional American method of circumventing the inflexibility of the Constitution. When the Constitution has come into conflict with the living needs of the nation, and when amendment was impossible, the method of changing the Constitution has been to change it and then get the very human Supreme Court to sanction it.

It is wrong to say that the Constitution will change with the times. It will be, illuminated by the times.