Quotes About Conflict

The liberators were not liberators. They were other occupiers. When

War was not dependent on personal volition; it was an unceasing imperial project, authorized by Islam.

To carry out war, three things are necessary," remarked the Milanese general Marshal Trivulzio presciently in 1499, "money, money and yet more money.

After 350 years the defeat at Varna extinguished the appetite in the West for crusading; never again would Christendom unite to try to drive the Muslims out of Europe.

So huge was the architecture of the conflict between Islam and Byzantium that no Muslim banners would be unfurled again before the city walls for another 650 years – a span of time greater than that separating us from 1453 – but prophecy decreed that they would return.

It is far better for a country to remain under the rule of Islam than be governed by Christians who refuse to acknowledge the rights of the Catholic Church. Pope Gregory VII, 1073

It was the emergence of the Turks that reawakened the slumbering spirit of jihad.

Any method of negotiation may be fairly judged by three criteria: It should produce a wise agreement if agreement is possible. It should be efficient. And it should improve or at least not damage the relationship between the parties.

The ability to see the situation as the other side sees it, as difficult as it may be, is one of the most important skills a negotiator can possess.

The more extreme the opening positions and the smaller the concessions, the more time and effort it will take to discover whether or not agreement is possible.

the more attention that is paid to positions, the less attention is devoted to meeting the underlying concerns of the parties.

The challenge is not to eliminate conflict but to transform it. It is to change the way we deal with our differences

the best time for handling people problems is before they become people problems.

Whether a negotiation concerns a contract, a family quarrel, or a peace settlement among nations, people routinely engage in positional bargaining. Each side takes a position, argues for it, and makes concessions to reach a compromise.

THE METHOD 2. Separate the People from the Problem 3. Focus on Interests, Not Positions 4. Invent Options for Mutual Gain 5. Insist on Using Objective Criteria

The game of negotiation takes place at two levels. At one level, negotiation addresses the substance; at another, it focuses—usually implicitly—on the procedure for dealing with the substance.

No matter how many people are involved in a negotiation, important decisions are typically made when no more than two people are in the room.

For more interesting examples from the Law of the Sea negotiations, see James K. Sebenius, Negotiating the Law of the Sea: Lessons in the Art and Science of Reaching Agreement (Harvard University Press, 1984).

BATNA—your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement?

Understanding is not agreeing.

As useful as looking for objective reality can be, it is ultimately the reality as each side sees it that constitutes the problem in a negotiation and opens the way to a solution.

Like it or not, you are a negotiator.

Marx's dialectical materialism does not permit any evasions: it is a question of settling a historic conflict. Man wrests his freedom from the chaos of capitalism; in this jungle of appetites and dog-eat-dog competition in which freedom is but a dream and a juggling of phrases, he can only win his freedom through class struggle.

There are ways of Deceiving the Eyes, as well as of Blinding them; so that the Cause of the Innocent must be remitted at last to that Great and Final Decision, where there is no longer any Place for Passion, Partiality, Corruption, or Error. But as to the Business of This World, when the Cocks and the Lambs lie at the Mercy of the Cats and Wolves, they must never expect better Quarter; especially where the Hearts Blood of the One, is the Nourishment and Entertainment of the Other.