Sydney Smith Quotes

If the political will is there, we can solve anything.

Settle all things, both great and small, by consultation. Without prior consultation, take no important step.

The chairman of a committee should be in harmony with the majority who constitute it.

By nature, I am a unifier. I am a builder of consensus. I don't believe in sloppy compromise. But I do believe in bringing people together.

Part of being a successful leader is listening and looking for opportunities to bring people together.

A leader's job is to find common ground.

We don't always agree on stuff, but when it's time to blow the whistle and start the game, we're not still debating.

Bipartisanship is nice, but it cannot be a substitute for action, not having it cannot prevent us from going forward.

Together, often by unanimous vote, the council has worked quickly to get positive results.

My job will not be easy but I am convinced the problems will be solved in a quicker and more efficient way if there is unity and consensus.

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

I choose to bring people together. I choose to seek compromise.

[Addressing Congress:] The people await action. They did not send us here to bicker ... Let us negotiate soon—and hard. But in the end, let us produce.

Encourage a readiness to find consensus.

Bipartisanship means you work together to work it out.

If we can’t even agree on the facts, it will be very difficult for us to lock arms and deal with these problems.

Decisions will be made to the contentment of all parties.

I have always believed in evolving a consensus before taking any major decision.

Good governance requires working toward common ground. It isn't easy.

When we come into the NSC, everybody has different opinions. At the end of the day, we present the president with all the facts. We let him make the decision. And we all, as a team, go out and support that decision.

In football, as in life, as in business, everything can be talked about and discussed.

In any leadership, whenever you're facing a tough challenge, find ways to bring people together and get them to serve together.

Every one of us in Congress has a responsibility to keep working together and stay focused on what matters.

What Lincoln did is he gathered people around him the way that I believe President Obama is doing by calling Republicans, talking to them, trying to work with them. And when that happens, big things get solved.

If everybody trusts one another, then the person who didn't prevail will faithfully execute the decision as if it was their idea.