Uncompromising Quotes
Bush was addressing all countries in the wake of the September 11 attack on New York and Washington.
This famous phrase, which boomeranged on Goldwater, was actually a close paraphrase of the great Roman orator Cicero. See related quote.
The issue being debated was slavery and Calhoun was one of the major defenders of it. His admonition against compromise represents one of two general major approaches to negotiations. The first is to compromise and finally reach a consensus and this is the means by which almost every piece of major legislation in American history has been created. The second is that stated in this quotation, and it was followed by most advocates of slavery. Since compromise was not possible, civil war eventually settled the issue.
This statement is often misquoted as “Important principles may and must be inflexible” which, of course, is the opposite of what he actually said.
A slight variant of this quotation was used by U. S. Senator Alan K. Simpson—{621186}.
