Daniel Patrick Moynihan Quotes

In my own experience, I've found that it's very difficult to make peace with women. We tend to be competitive and feel angry.

Why are we talking about talking? Why negotiating about negotiating? It's very simple. If you want to get to peace, put all your preconditions on the side, sit down opposite a table, not in a studio, by the way.

We experience problem-solving sessions as war zones, we view competing ideas as enemies, and we use problems as weapons to blame and defeat opposition forces. No wonder we can't come up with real lasting solutions!

It's hard for people to understand that when five or six guys are together working intensely, they can really get into some duels.

It is easier to say new things than to reconcile those which have already been said.

Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal.

Societies can easily talk themselves into conflict and misery. But they can also talk, and act, their way out.

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.

I want to say a simple thing, that the dividing line exists not between Jordan and Israel, but between the proponents of peace and the opponents of peace.

Reasoned arguments and suggestions which make allowance for the full difficulties of the state of war that exists may help, and will always be listened to with respect and sympathy.

The stakes in conflict do not change. Battle determines who will control the wealth or its equivalent.

People love to play expectations games, and that is always bad for collaboration internal to a team, with your manager, or externally with customers.

I think we might well ask: How does one destroy his enemy by becoming like him?

What good is to be expected from creating division when engaged in war …?

Surely diplomacy is needed when there is conflict, not when there is harmony.

I don't know what is to be done. This isn't war.

He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them.

There is no such thing as a conflict that cannot be ended.

Human nature being what it is, peace must inevitably be a relative condition. The essence of life is struggle and competition, and to that extent perfect peace is an almost meaningless abstraction. Struggle and competition are stimulating, but when they degenerate into conflict it is usually both destructive and disruptive.

According to the “ripeness theory,” every conflict reaches a point when the parties are tired of confrontation and determine it is in their interest to make peace. With practical steps, principled leadership, and encouragement from the international community, the peace process still represents a win-win for both sides.

A party is no place for a crank. If he cannot compromise and go forward, he should flock alone.

The hardest job is getting personalities to mesh.

There must be some tensions in a team, which you can't always wipe away or smooth over.

Every fight is a new fight.

It's all realistic, if you get a group of ladies and you stick them together almost every day for three, four months you're going to have some catfights.