Patrick Rafter Quotes

Why is it that common sense is seldom common practice?

I'm a practical person. Most fashion people live in the clouds, and they're full of it. I live like a human being - or, I try to - and I have to be intelligent; I have to be practical. I'm a great believer in common sense, and the older I get, I see that common sense is not that common.

A theory must be tempered with reality.

You have to have the common sense.

I like common sense, to try and be the voice of reason at work.

I'm optimistic but I'm also not stupid.

I'm always the "less is more" guy when it comes to a scene. So I'ma be the one who will keep it grounded. Even if I let it go off and go crazy, I'm still the voice of keeping things grounded in reality.

Common sense is the measure of the possible.

The most practical thing in the world is common sense and common humanity.

I am a realist. I expect miracles.

I realize that after decades of positive thinking the notion of realism, of things as they are, may seem a little quaint. ... When the stakes are high enough and the risks obvious, we still turn to people who can be counted on to understand those risks and prepare for worst-case scenarios. A chief of state does not want to hear a general in the field say that he 'hopes' to win tomorrow's battle or that he's 'visualizing victory'.

I've got to be sensible sometimes.

What we need most, is not so much to realize the ideal as to idealize the real.

I'm quite grounded.

If you align expectations with reality, you will never be disappointed.

I always try to be reasonable and effective.

Dickens was very practical and sensible.

There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.

Government is the art of the momentarily feasible, of the least bad attainable, and not of the rationally most desirable.

I came in 1949, and all of us thought the climate was not just ripe for change. We often delay adjudication. [I]t’s [sic] not a question of evading at all. It’s just the practicalities of life – common sense.

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Be sensible, that is, cease to be honest.

Upon subjects of government, it has always appeared to me that metaphysical refinements are out of place. A Constitution of government is addressed to the common sense of the people; and never was designed for trials of logical skill or visionary speculation.

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.

We are a moderate, pragmatic people, more comfortable with practice than theory.