Compromise - Quotes

A compromise is a settlement by which each side gets what neither side wanted. - Evan Esar

A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece. - Ludwig Erhard

A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit. - George Herbert

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

Compromise cannot be allowed in cases where the exact truth is ascertainable. - Arthur Lynch

Compromise is like the middle of the road; always safer to walk on than the edges. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Compromise is not regarded favourably by everyone. Some have criticized it as a half-hearted attempt to satisfy both parties' interests. Others have suggested that it is a process of caving in (mutual yielding) to escape the hard work of constructive settlement. These criticisms might be valid in some cases. But they seem to be overwhelmingly outweighed by the numerous constructive resolutions of ongoing conflicts achieved every day through exchanging concessions and compromise. - William E. Steckman

Compromise is the key to keeping you feeling like you are not being walked on. - Heather Hogan

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof. - James Russell Lowell

Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy. - Phyllis McGinley

“Compromise” is so often used in a bad sense that it is difficult to remember that properly it merely describes the process of reaching an agreement. Naturally there are certain subjects on which no man can compromise. For instance, there must be no compromise under any circumstances with official corruption, and of course no man should hesitate to say as much. - Theodore Roosevelt

If you cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen. - Nikita Khrushchev

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

Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible. - Bertrand Russell

The method of compromise is ... itself a compromise between the two methods, that of persuasion, on the one hand, and that of force, on the other. - Oliver Martin

When a nation issues ultimatums, it leaves no room for compromise and ensures that war will continue. - Howard Zinn

When you compromise your beliefs for the sake of gain, that is a lack of integrity. When you compromise your beliefs for the sake of greater understanding with your spouse, that’s called wisdom. - Fawn Weaver

Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles. - Ayn Rand