Challenging Issues Quotes

I think we are elected with a responsibility to take tough votes, tackle tough challenges today. There's too much punting.

The simple questions are always the hardest ones.

If you are going to make peace, you can't just meet nice people.

Every problem that is interesting is also soluble

Ugly problems often require ugly solutions. Solving an ugly problem in a pure manner is bloody hard.

What comes into the Oval Office are not the good or easy decisions. The easy decisions are made elsewhere. The things that make it to the Oval are always the hard ones.

Don't tell me this is a difficult problem. If it weren't difficult, it wouldn't be a problem.

Nothing is ever off the table at 'The Fosters' as long as it's based in reality.

We believe the world changes when the boldest thinking is directed at the toughest problems

If I finish my term in office … and have high approval ratings, then I wasted my last years in office. That high approval rating means you don’t upset anybody. High approval rating means you’re skiing down the slope and you never fall. Well, you’re skiing the baby slope, for goodness’ sakes. Go to a steeper slope. You always want to press, and you want to tackle the issues that are unpopular, that nobody else will go after.

The best work that I am able to do is when I am willing to write about questions I haven't quite figured out, or things I'm really wrestling with, things that keep me up at night.

There is simply no way we are going to make progress on the enormous challenges we face without making hard choices. It's impossible.

A good teacher is like a good artist. They go right to the most difficult part of whatever's going on.

Do not imagine that these most difficult problems can be thoroughly understood by any one of us.