Mick Mulvaney Quotes

There comes a point, in any kind of, whether it's in your family discussions or business or whatever, where you finally have to get over the making of the points and now let's see if we can find common ground.

We aren't going to agree on everything and there will be other areas where we will be working together.

If we can’t agree on the facts, how can we agree on the solutions?

We cannot agree on everything but we must agree on the framework.

The main purpose of dialogue is to come to an agreement on how the two parties can work together, realize their mutual interests, and avoid conflict as much as possible

You need people that are willing to talk to the other side, or you're never going to get anything done. You need to be willing to expand your ground. There's always usually a place on issues where you can find common ground.

Good governance requires working toward common ground. It isn't easy.

Deals really have to do with the overlap of what one side wants and the other side wants, and it's really just the discovery of where that overlap is and how you decide to get there.

Heck, nobody gets along perfectly. But what we have is respect for one another. We have a system where one guy can veto anything.

We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own ... in order to create this common ground.

We can find common ground only by moving to higher ground.

What people generally tell you is, "We'll all agree," and then once you sign, they expect to get their own way. I think it was a bit of a surprise that I was still very headstrong even after signing. I wasn't so happy to get a deal that I would agree to anything. In fact, I disagreed on most things and got my way on most things, which I think was to all of our benefit. But they wanted the record to come out, and I wanted the record to come out, so we had to work together.

We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own turf in order to create this common ground.

It takes two sides to make a deal, two sides to negotiate and two sides to make it go bad.

We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise.

We have to find compromises. That's the way it is in Norway.

Consensus isn't just about agreement. It's about changing things around: You get a proposal, you work something out, people foresee problems, you do creative synthesis. At the end of it, you come up with something that everyone thinks is okay. Most people like it, and nobody hates it.

I think that people have to reward those individuals who are prepared to work across the political aisle. I don't see any other way; if you don't talk to people with whom you disagree, you're never going to solve problems.

If we cannot agree, then at least we ought to move on.

I sure tried to help deliver compromise, consensus, bipartisanship.

Compromise works well in this world when you have shared goals.

You cannot compromise unless people talk to you.

I believe any time that both parties are talking, it's a good thing.

Negotiations can create conditions that can lead to solutions.

Once in a while I can agree with the enemy.