Nelson Mandela Quotes

A good compromise leaves everyone angry.

If you want to bring an end to long-standing conflict, you have to be prepared to compromise. If either or both sides insist on getting everything that they want - that is to say 100 percent of their demands to be met, then there can never be a settlement.

Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.

It was a remarkably reasonable compromise. It pleased nobody, but everybody signed on.

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

When you start to work with someone, there's a negotiation that takes place involving what's going to happen when you have a difference of opinion. Most attempts at collaboration never survive the negotiation. Merely being agreeable is not enough.

Negotiating in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.

Trying to negotiate getting a couple of kids to watch the same TV show requires serious diplomacy.

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

Do you know what the root of mediation is? Mediocrity!

You have to listen to adversaries and keep looking for that point beyond which it's against their interests to keep on disagreeing or fighting.

You cannot compromise unless people talk to you.

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

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

To resolve problems through negotiation is a very childish approach.

Jaw jaw is better than war war.

Two dogs never agree about one bone.

Negotiations can create conditions that can lead to solutions.

If after negotiations there are still some differences outstanding between us, the differences will be adjusted by arms.

What matters is not whether one talks to adversaries but what one says to them, which strategies of engagement are set in place, and how competently they are executed.

When men understand what each other mean, they see for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless.

Having three kids at home is sometimes like dealing with Democrats and Republicans when you're choosing a restaurant.

I'm not an 'opponent.' I don't believe I should be treated as an opponent.

Sometimes, we find common ground; more often, we don't.