Quotes About Negotiation

Nothing ever gets settled in this town (Washington). It's not like running a company or even a university. It's a seething debating society, in which the debate never stops; in which people never give up, including me, and that's the atmosphere in which you administer.

We're eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow just blinked.

It takes two to make a bargain.

It's a bad bargain where nobody gains.

The best of a bad bargain.

Every man has his price.

The father of confederation is deadlock.

I suppose the half-breeds in Manitoba, in 1870, did not fight for two hundred forty acres of land, but it is to be understood there were two societies who treated together. One was small, but in its smallness it had its rights. The other was great, but in its greatness it had no greater rights than the rights of the small, because the right is the same for everyone.

The story of Canada is that if one meeting fails, you have another meeting.

In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content, So we clap on Dutch bottoms just 20%.

Patience is a most necessary quality for business; many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.

Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.

He that rides his hobby gently must always give way to him that rides his hobby hard.

He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides.

I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. First, let her think she's having her own way. And second, let her have it.

When a diplomat says yes he means perhaps; when he says perhaps he means no; when he says no he is no diplomat.

I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.

Give an inch, he'll take an ell.

There is but one way for a president to deal with the Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it's really going to work, the relationship between the president and the Congress has got to be almost incestuous.

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

I'd rather deal with a Mob guy shaking hands on a deal than a Hollywood lawyer, who, the minute you get the contract signed, is trying to figure out how to screw you.

I am trying to make my peace with the paparazzi.