Eugene Jarecki Quotes

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

You can cooperate and not compromise your core values. But I'm a realist with the philosophy that sometimes you've got to take bites out of the apple instead of the whole apple.

Former President Bill Clinton, who is widely regarded as a political mastermind, may have sounded like a traditional liberal at the beginning of his term in office. But what ultimately defined his presidency was his amazing pliability on matters of principle.

I'm a pragmatist.

I am an expert in the 'art of the possible.'

I learned over time that you do not go for the perfect solution….You do what is doable and then you want to try and do a little bit more.

[Ideological] Purity is fine but it doesn’t win elections and is not a governing strategy. Compromise is required.

One learns to itch where one can scratch.

Today, Democrats not only have the White House; they have the Senate too. So we have to be realistic about what we can and cannot achieve, while at the same recognizing that realism should never be confused with capitulation.

This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.

Reagan didn't put anything off the table, if he felt it was for the good of the American people to tweak the tax system.

Well, the first quality of being a good leader is you have to be able to follow. See, a good leader can't just be the leader all the time, I have to be able to follow.

I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

The common agenda both sides seem to share is: Whatever works.

I'm just not a purist. You set goals and you have to work with everyone to figure out how to get what you can.

My only definition is that I am a pragmatist.

A president, like a college freshman, can't know in advance which questions he'll have to answer or what topics he'll have to master. He has to be flexible, supple, and responsive. He has to be comfortable with multiple-choice.

Coming from a big family, I learned a lot. Things don't have to be perfect. You can do okay with 'almost.'

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

I want a politics that doesn't need to pretend to be holy or perfect or infallible. I want a politics that gets on with it.

I do not come bearing a party label on my sleeve - or a quick fix in my back pocket. I do not come with a rigid ideology in my heart - or a soul that tells me to go it alone. I do not come to uproot tradition - or to be imprisoned by it.

One thing I've always liked about the military is there's a certain amount of pragmatism.

It is best to live however one can be.

I use that as my responsibility on the show, to be the pragmatist.

When you're failing, there's a very powerful incentive to put ideology aside and just do what seems to work.