Bob Beckel Quotes

The first rule of negotiations is that normally you have to give to get.

You help me, I'll help you. That's politics.

I hope I use them more than they use me.

International negotiation has a nasty tendency to remind its practitioners that the laws of gravity affect them, too, and that international life is a two-way street in which one may have to give in order to get.

Anyone who has ever negotiated an agreement knows that in order to get it, you have to be willing to walk away from the table..

Donald Trump doesn't necessarily stay mad for very long. He's a transactional guy. If you can offer him something, he will take it. Or from a salesman's point of view, if he's not making the sale, you're of no use to him. But if you suddenly come back into the showroom and are willing to buy, he's willing to sell.

No transaction happens unless it is voluntary. It only happens if both of you think you win.

You do not get what you want. You get what you negotiate.

I always think if you are asking somebody for something it is a good idea to give them something first.

The best move you can make in negotiation is to think of an incentive the other person hasn't even thought of - and then meet it.

The best way to make a good deal is to have the ability to walk away from it.

You are beginning to see that any man to whom you can do favor is your friend, and that you can do a favor to almost anyone.

I have some friends who have been living in the political world for some time now. It's a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you've got something you want, and that person who has it wants something in return, it quite literally becomes your job to find whatever it is that they want.

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.

When we aid a country, we must have a minimum in return.

Everybody trades off in some sense or another.

We always find that taking a fairly hard-line position means our membership gets the best deal possible.

… the principle of give and take--give one and take ten--the principle of diplomacy.

It is never exactly clear what makes something a quid or a quo.

That’s the trick in any negotiation. Getting to yes means getting the other party satisfied that its interest are being met sufficiently…. You both got to get something out of it that your prepared to fight for at home.

In most negotiations, you can't attribute success or failure in negotiations to one side.

It's a lot easier to negotiate and be skillful from the majority. I want Paul Ryan negotiating with us. I don't want to have to negotiate with Paul Ryan.

It's been proven in Washington: It's very hard to negotiate and try to get a deal done in public.

Dealing with political things, it's not for me. It makes me crazy. I want to buy, you want to sell. Please make it simple.

Everything is a negotiation. Everything is a little bit of give and take.