George Aiken Quotes

I believe that being conservative means you try to get in to the middle of the fight and try to solve the problem.

Potency does not mean being unnecessarily aggressive; one has to be wise.

Compromise is like the middle of the road; always safer to walk on than the edges.

You need diplomacy and not slogans. This is the place for wisdom, the place for seeking windows that will take you to the objective.

Mere human beings cant afford to be fanatical about anything. Not even about justice or loyalty. The fanatic for justice ends by murdering a million helpless people to clear a space for his law-courts. If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises.

If I believe in something, I will fight for it with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing. Professional liberals want the fiery debate. They glory in defeat. The hardest job for a politician today is to have the courage to be a moderate. It's easy to take an extreme position.

Moderate doesn't mean that you're a wimp - far from it. It means that you've chosen a path because you believe that's the only way for global harmony and peace.

In politics the middle way is none at all.

Combine the extremes, and you will have the true center.

To light one candle to God and another to the Devil is the principle of wisdom.

History is filled with tragic examples of wars that result from diplomatic impasse. Whether in our local communities or in international relations, the skillful use of our communicative capacities to negotiate and resolve differences is the first evidence of human wisdom.

It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.

There must be a happy medium somewhere between being totally informed and blissfully unaware.

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.

I'm not an extremist, you know.

The President so far has struck me as a man who is trying hard to keep his balance. He certainly has been very receptive to all my efforts in these directions.

You will go most safely in the middle.

President Johnson offered the middle of the road.

No society ... can fail in time to explode if it is deprived of the arts of compromise .... No good society can be unprincipled and no viable society can be principle-ridden.

The art of politics is to find something in the middle that satisfies most.

The politician says: "I will give you what you want." The statesman says: "What you think you want is this. What it is possible for you to get is that. What you really want, therefore, is the following.

Any policy that is extreme we must avoid.

Extremism of the right should not be answered by extremism of the left, because neither extremism will work. The country has been wise in avoiding extremism

The solution, as always, is a union of the half truths drawn from the extremes

Hawks usually care about benefits; doves most about costs. Neither benefits or costs however are easily estimated in advance.