Edwin Newman Quotes

I'm not a professional politician. I'm a professional problem solver.

When you're President you have to make a lot of tough decisions. You have to keep lining them up and making them.

I've learned with Donald Trump - take him at his word.

I fix things. Believe me, when you hear about tough phone calls I'm having, don't worry about it.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

Great leaders don't rush to blame. They instinctively look for solutions.

The important thing is that we recognize our President's leadership, that he is not saying: I am going to walk away from this. He is saying: I am going to do the right thing.

I think the job of leadership is to expand what can be talked about and to get consensus on the nature of the problem, and that is most of the job. Because once you do that, once you have diagnosis, treatment options are obvious.

A prime minister has to keep a certain balance when dealing with sensitive issues.

The art of politics is knowing what to do next.

A statesman wants courage and a statesman wants vision; but believe me, after six months' experience, he wants first, second, third and all the time - patience.

I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn't. Hey, it made me a better leader: you have to take a lot of people's needs into account; you have to look down the road. Trying to negotiate getting a couple of kids to watch the same TV show requires serious diplomacy.

The president of the United States actually has to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

I worked with a group of people who argued day and night - professors, officials, the Minister of Finance - but there were decisions that I had to make.

We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will.

I'm not a professional politician, I'm a problem solver.

The wound-tight, travel-light Obama has a distaste for the adversarial and the random. But if you stick too rigidly to a 'No Drama' rule in the White House, you risk keeping reality at bay. Presidencies are always about crisis management.

Leaders of the future will have to be visionary and be able to bring people in - real communicators. These are things that women bring to leadership and executive positions, and it's going to be incredibly valuable and incredibly in demand.

The cardinal responsibility of leadership is to identify the dominant contradiction at each point of the historical process and to work out a central line to resolve it.

There are certain skills that business people have that are - that are, in fact, helpful in - when it comes to being in political leadership.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

I tremendously enjoy getting involved in a troubled situation and straightening it out... My interest would be if there was a situation that came up, and I thought I could do something with and the price was right, I would be interested.

Joint committees are heat generators rather than light producers.

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.

Effective Presidents are those who can achieve a balance between purpose and prudence.