John Negroponte Quotes

It is impossible that the whisper of a faction should prevail against the voice of a nation.

If you can’t bring the people with you, you lose the policy

With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.

The reforms we achieved did not enjoy the support of everybody, but they did receive the support of the majority needed to pass them ...

The only way to deal with gridlock is compromise. And if we compromise, it means we’ll have a confused policy.

We know the war on drugs will not be won in Washington DC When the United States of America decides it wants to do something and the people pull together, amazing things can be done.

When the chips are down, the majority always wins.

Anyone who can bring the Conservative Party together can bring the country together.

The political equivalent of an immaculate conception: a [legislative] compromise that materializes without any politician having to take the blame.

It is the culture at the Fed [Federal Reserve Board] to seek consensus as distinct from merely recording one's vote.... Unless the chairman has everyone behind him, he can't go very far.

In government, consensus is more important than command; persuasion not only works better than arrogance, it's vital to the democratic process.

Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to be the average man.

I will govern according to the common weal, but not according to the common will.

By God, you can't fight a war unless the people support it.

There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two.

No foreign policy, no matter how ingenious, has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

Political unity should be given great weight, but it also should be related to some sensible program.

The principal concern of Mexico’s political elite today is how to build governing majorities and achieve consensus.

When you go to war, you have to build bipartisan support and then you have to sustain it.

Great innovations should not be forced on a slender majority

Good political leadership for me involves getting the big decisions right - however difficult, however controversial, however potentially divisive and then being able to take people with you.

There never was a law yet made, I conceive, that hit the taste exactly of every man, or every part of the community; of course, if this be a reason for opposition, no law can be executed at all without force

No president … has ever quarreled with Congress as a whole, or with either chamber, without being backed by the people. The great body of voters hate what they regard as an unequal fight, and may always be trusted to side with the one man as against the many; with the public servant whom they have jointly elected, as against any number of public servants chosen to represent fractional parts of the Union.

That’s one difficulty about a democracy. Nothing ever gets decided—even after its been decided.

Viable grand strategies need to rest on a wellspring of domestic support.