Sunday, February 28, 2010 – Compromising Positions
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. ~ Edmund Burke
Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship. ~ James Russell Lowell
Compromise, n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due. ~ Ambrose Bierce
There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise. ~ Gore Vidal
A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece. ~ Ludwig Erhard
Compromise: An agreement between two men to do what both agree is wrong. ~ Lord Edward Cecil
A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit. ~ George Herbert
Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval. ~ Thomas S. Monson
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough. ~ Abraham Lincoln
If power corrupts, weakness in the seat of power, with its constant necessity of deals and bribes and compromising arrangements,corrupts even more. ~ Barbara Tuchman
I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle. ~ Andrew Carnegie
It’s true Heaven forbids some pleasures, but a compromise can usually be found. ~ Moliere
Sometimes a little compromise isn’t a bad thing. You don’t need to be precious about it. ~ David Sylvian
The compromise will always be more expensive than either of the suggestions it is compromising. ~ Arthur Bloch
Moderation? It’s mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise. It’s the devil’s dilemma. It’s neither doing nor not doing. It’s the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy. Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence-sitters of the world afraid to take a stand. It’s for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die. Moderation…is lukewarm tea, the devil’s own brew. ~ Dan Millman, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior
The devil is compromise. ~ Henrik Ibsen
They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody? ~ Princess Diana
Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing. ~ Samuel Butler
We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can’t agree on when it’s necessary to compromise. ~ Larry Wall
You know what the Englishman’s idea of compromise is? He says, Some people say there is a God. Some people say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two statements. ~ William Butler Yeats
The English never draw a line without blurring it. ~ Winston Churchill
What are facts but compromises? A fact merely marks the point where we have agreed to let investigation cease. ~ Bliss Carman
Compromise is never anything but an ignoble truce between the duty of a man and the terror of a coward. ~ Reginald W. Kaufman
Compromise is when one person wants to rob a bank and the other person does not, and they compromise to rob a person outside of the bank. ~ Christopher Myers
Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity. ~ Bertrand Russell
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions. ~ Samuel Johnson
People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
If one cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen. ~ Nikita Khrushchev
Conciliation is not capitulation, nor is compromise to be deemed equivalent to imbalanced concession. ~ Jalal Talabani
Do you know that the ready concession of minor points is a part of the grace of life? ~ Henry Harland
Each concession we make is accompanied by an inner diminution of which we are not immediately conscious. ~ Emile M. Cioran
I wouldn’t make the slightest concession for moral leadership. It’s much overrated. ~ Dean Rusk
If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy. ~ Phyllis McGinley
Compromise is simply changing the question to fit the answer. ~ Merrit Malloy
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best of the choices available. Some people are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise. And some people just act on any whim that enters their heads. I pragmatically turn my whims into principles. ~ Bill Watterson
Just Above Sunset 