John C. Calhoun Quotes

Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of circumstances, are often justifiable

I just have always felt that people don't change, circumstances change.

Consistency is the most overrated of all human virtues... I'm someone who changes his mind all the time.

The optimist underestimates how difficult it is to achieve real change, believing that anything is possible and it's possible now. Only by confronting head-on the reality that all progress is going to be obstructed by vested interests and corrupted by human venality can we create realistic programmes that actually have a chance of success.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.

I'm a politician. What I say is not holy writ.

You have to adapt your policies to changing circumstances.

One of the reasons for the survival of the ANC (African National Congress) over such a long period, is their ability to steal other people's programs, and to adapt to situations. As extraordinary adaptation to a policy which previously they opposed, and then they realize its merits, and then adjust and it comes out as a different policy. That has been the characteristic of the ANC, for which they've been criticized historically, as being inconsistent. But it's that which enabled them to survive to a ripe old age, and they are still doing it.

A country survives its legislation. That truth should not comfort the conservative nor depress the radical. For it means that public policy can enlarge its scope and increase its audacity, can try big experiments without trembling too much...

The clammy hand of consistency has never rested for long upon my shoulder.

Abraham Lincoln and Everett Dirksen understood with singular clarity that a great and diverse people do not speak with a single voice and that adherence to a rigid ideology leaves little room for compromise and response to change.

In Washington it's much easier to stop something than make something happen.

Persistence in one opinion has never been considered a merit in political leaders.

Those who never retract their opinions, love themselves more than they love truth.

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

True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another.

You use whatever lever you have.

What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.

If there are other ways of gracefully and good naturedly surrendering former views to a better considered position, I invoke them all.

I wonder if it is wise for any of us to read anyone's writings too consistently? No matter how able they may be, they seem occasionally to find it difficult to be consistent, and this tends to give me as a reader the feeling that we are all of us swayed by so much by our momentary impulses and interests, that what we write at any time can not be taken too seriously.

A man who has made up his mind on a given subject twenty-five years ago and continues to hold his political opinions after he has been proved to be wrong is a man of principle; while he who from time to time adapts his opinions to the changing circumstances of life is an opportunist.

We need the self-confidence to admit that at best we possess only a partial understanding of the truth, which can be enlarged by refining our views in light of new arguments, new circumstances and new insights. But this requires us to listen to others, to weigh their arguments with care, and maybe even to learn from them.

In terms of work, I'm doing exactly the same as I've always done. It's what's around me that's changed.

I would have prepared differently before big matches but I wouldn't change my life.