quotations about compromise
Politics without compromise is like a car without a gear box: it can look quite elegant but you won't get anything out of it.
NEIL KINNOCK
The Guardian, January 20, 2006
We will compromise on almost anything, but not on our values, or our aesthetics, or our idealism, or our sense of curiosity.
ANITA RODDICK
Body and Soul
People who compromise truth and strong values find that their gains are eventually offset by the loss of respect of others.
RON WILLINGHAM
The People Principle: A Revolutionary Redefinition of Leadership
Compromise is simply when we change the answer to fit the question.
ANONYMOUS
A compromise is a settlement by which each side gets what neither side wanted.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval.
RUSSELL M. NELSON
Accomplishing the Impossible
The achievement of maturity, psychologically speaking, might be said to be the realization and acceptance that we simply cannot live independently from the world, and so we must live within it, with whatever compromises that might entail.
PAUL MURRAY
Skippy Dies
Warm and soft, this blanket
Of compromise has taken me
Years to weave
Not a single flower of truth
Embellishes it.
Not a single false stitch
Betrays it.
It will do to cover my body though
And it will bring comfort too
If not joy, nor sadness to you.
ZEHRA NIGAH
"Compromise"
If you cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.
NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV
Time Magazine, Jan. 6, 1958
Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf.
G. K. CHESTERTON
What's Wrong with the World
The body can endure compromise and the mind can be seduced by it. Only the heart protests. The heart. Carbon-based primitive in a silicon world.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
The Powerbook
The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.
AYN RAND
The Fountainhead
All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act is founded on compromise and barter. We balance inconveniences; we give and take; we remit some rights that we may enjoy others; and we choose rather to be happy citizens than subtle disputants.
EDMUND BURKE
speech on conciliation with America, Mar. 22, 1775
A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.
GEORGE HERBERT
Jacula Prudentum
Now and then one can stand uncompromisingly for a naked principle and force people up to it. This is always the attractive course; but in certain great crises it may be a very wrong course. Compromise, in the proper sense, merely means agreement; in the proper sense opportunism should merely mean doing the best possible with actual conditions as they exist. A compromise which results in a half-step toward evil is all wrong, just as the opportunist who saves himself for the moment by adopting a policy which is fraught with future disaster is all wrong; but no less wrong is the attitude of those who will not come to an agreement through which, or will not follow the course by which, it is alone possible to accomplish practical results for good.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The Century, Jun. 1900
Remember we are Pirates. We never compromise.
ISABELLE RAZORS
Reflective Dogma
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
The Devil's Dictionary
You cannot build a dream on a foundation of sand. To weather the test of storms, it must be cemented in the heart with uncompromising conviction.
T.F. HODGE
From Within I Rise
When a nation issues ultimatums, it leaves no room for compromise and ensures that war will continue.
HOWARD ZINN
Howard Zinn on War