Quotes About Negotiation

We [U.S.S.R. and U.S.A.] can exist peacefully together if we don't indulge in too much mutual fault-finding in all kinds of trifles.

Why can't the Jews and the Arabs just sit down together and settle this like good Christians?

People very rarely think in groups; they talk together, they exchange information, they adjudicate, they make compromises. But they do not think; they do not create.

Come now. let us reason together.

If we can put together a Mexican businessman and a U.S. businessman, they will find a way to do more business.

Once kick the world, and the world and you will live together at a reasonably good understanding.

Russians had agreed to live under a sort of dictatorship in exchange for stability. But they assumed that it was a soft dictatorship, which could negotiate if the need arose.

Nobody ever saw a dog make fair and deliberate exchange of a bone with another dog.

Fundamentally, other animals do not do barter.

True barter requires that you give up something you value in exchange for something else you value slightly more.

Ultimatum Game

We Deveauxs preferred to talk you to death, rather than face you in physical combat.

Lois Cook said that words must be freed from the oppression of reason. She said the stranglehold of reason upon words is like the exploitation of the masses by the capitalists. Words must be permitted to negotiate with reason through collective bargaining. That's what she said. She's so amusing and refreshing.

We will outstretch the hand if you unclench your fist.

Here's the truth: the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn't have a single one. But when the world was on the brink of nuclear holocaust, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev and he got those missiles out of Cuba. Why shouldn't we have the same courage and the confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do, that's what strong presidents do, that's what I'll do when I'm president of the United States of America.

Better to be strong,' he [Lolo] said...'if you can't be strong, be clever and make peace with someone who's strong. But always better to be strong yourself.

What had Frank called college? An advanced degree in compromise.

Please proceed, Governor.

We will extend our arms to you[world] if you unclench your fists.

If we want other countries to support our priorities," I told my NSC team, "we can't just bully them into it. We've got to show them we're taking their perspectives into account—or at least can find them on a map.

It is harder to end a war, than begin one.

Well, that's not even a question, Mr. President," Nancy said impatiently. "We've come too far to give up now." She thought for a moment. Then, as if testing out an argument she'd later use with her caucus, she added, "If we let this go, it would be rewarding the Republicans for acting so terribly, wouldn't it? We're not going to give them the satisfaction.

You're too important for me to take no as an answer

In other words, FDR understood that to be effective, governance couldn't be so antiseptic that it set aside the basic stuff of politics: You had to sell your program, reward supporters, punch back against opponents, and amplify the facts that helped your cause while fudging the details that didn't.