Conflicting Interests Quotes

Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow.

In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. ‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me—who lives and who dies?

Federal governments and even state governments within countries have basically been immobilized by conflicting interests, by conflicting views of what science is, and the inability to lead. They are immobilized because they don’t want to take tough votes and alienate half of the constituency.

You know how it is: when you politicize things, it is not the best ingredient to get things done.

When you're trying to please both sides of the fence at the same time you really can't do that.

The old approach of sacrificing the needs of one group to benefit another just won't work.

The interest of the landlords is always opposed to the interest of every other class in the community.

As many servants so many enemies.

You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea.

Every fighter has a different agenda. Every promoter has a different agenda for their fighter. Every manager has a different agenda. So things change all the time.

Were there no contrariety of interests, nothing would be more simple and easy than to form and preserve free institutions. The right of suffrage alone would be a sufficient guarantee. It is the conflict of opposing interests which renders it the most difficult work of man.

Place three individuals in a situation wherein the interest of each depends on the voice of the others, and give to two of them an interest opposed to the rights of the third. Will the latter be secure? The prudence of every man would shun the danger. The rules & forms of justice suppose & guard against it. Will two thousand in a like situation be less likely to encroach on the rights of one thousand?

The story of the merchant is told by the marketer. They need each other, and if they get along, it's peanut butter and jelly. If they don't, it's oil and water.

This policy of supplying by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs, both private and public.

Verily a man cannot serve two masters. And I consider the foundation or destruction of a religion far greater than the foundation or destruction of a state, let alone a party.

So, rather than trying to humbly mix with the rest of the world, we are forcing ourselves upon it. We seem to create conflicts with everyone.

The condition of our survival in any but the meagerest existence is our willingness to accommodate ourselves to the conflicting interests of others, to learn to live in a social world.

The EU Constitution sets a path towards the elimination of nation states and the emergence of a European state in the strictest sense of the word. I'm definitely opposed to it… The EU isn't a loving family of European nations where everyone altruistically cares for everyone else. Various interests clash on various issues, and all kinds of coalitions are struck to push through specific solutions

When you decide you're going to be a public servant, you should not be able to take on interests that conflict with the city.

I do not see Russia as a friend of the United States in any form or fashion. Are there some things that we might be able to work together on? Sure. We certainly haven't seen evidence of their desire to fight terrorism with us. I mean, we see them kill civilians, and you know, help Syrian President Bashar Assad concentrate more fully his power.

When I was busy with movies, I had little time for dance.

I have to make a lot of decisions that aren't in the best interests of individuals, whether they be owners, club executives, players.

Of course I want to be good, but that may not be to your advantage.

You can't achieve anything without getting in someone's way. You can't be detached and effective.

Men educate each other in reason by contact or collision, and keep each other sane by the very conflict of their separate hobbies. Society as a whole is the deadly enemy of the particular crotchet of each, and solitude is almost the only condition in which the acorn of conceit can grow to the oak of perfect self-delusion.