Frank Andrew Munsey Quotes

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.

I'm not an extremist, you know.

I'm progressive, and I'm practical.

People ask me if I'm liberal or conservative. I say neither - I'm pragmatic.

will anything but fanaticism make for change? Wisdom and compromise come later.

People ask me, "Are you right wing or are you left wing?" and I always say, "I'm for the whole bird." A one-winged bird didn't ever get off the ground.

I'm convinced that the most important division in human affairs is probably not the one between left and right, liberal and conservative. It's the one between zealotry and understanding, between absolute conviction and compromise, between preachers and politicians.

I think President Obama is a committed, practicing nonideologue. He's consumed by neither tactics nor ideology. He is more concerned about outcomes than he is about process and categorizations.

When people ask me if I'm liberal or conservative, I say, 'Yeah.' I'm both of them. To be a liberal means to be open-minded and generous and open to new ideas. And to be conservative means to hold onto things that are important, things that shouldn't be cast aside.

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

Moderates tend more than ideologues to be other-directed types who respond to external pressure.

I'm an independent, straight in the middle. I've donated to candidates that I thought would be good that are Republican and Democrats alike.

I think experience will teach you a combination of liberalism and conservatism. We have to be progressive and at the same time we have to retain values. We have to hold onto the past as we explore the future.

Any policy that is extreme we must avoid.

I believe that being conservative means you try to get in to the middle of the fight and try to solve the problem.

Intuitive versus analytical? That's a foolish choice. It's foolish, just like trying to choose between being realistic or idealistic. You need both in life.

I like to be an optimist, but I like to be a realist, too.

I'm certainly not a hard liner, that's clear.

If I believe in something, I will fight for it, with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing.

Mere human beings cant afford to be fanatical about anything. Not even about justice or loyalty. The fanatic for justice ends by murdering a million helpless people to clear a space for his law-courts. If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises.

If I believe in something, I will fight for it with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing. Professional liberals want the fiery debate. They glory in defeat. The hardest job for a politician today is to have the courage to be a moderate. It's easy to take an extreme position.

Extremism of the right should not be answered by extremism of the left, because neither extremism will work. The country has been wise in avoiding extremism

Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.

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

I learned a long time ago in politics, never say never.