Negotiation Quotes

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

~ John F. Kennedy

We usually learn from debates that we seldom learn from debates.

~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

It's hard to argue over money when a girl flashes you her pussy.

~ Oliver Markus Malloy

Any negotiation has a limit. Otherwise, war is irrelevant.

~ Toba Beta

There isn’t anything I can tell you that you don’t already know,” Melly answered.“Yes, but if we already know it then you’re not telling us anything new,” Bea said, thinking her way through the carriages of fear on the witch’s train of thought, “and if we don’t tell you what we know and what we don’t know, then you won’t know if you’ve actually told us something we don’t know, and what you don’t know we don’t know won’t hurt you.”Melly stared at Bea, her cigarette hanging from her lip in defeat.“Did that make sense?” Joan asked.“Yes,” Melly said slowly, “but it probably shouldn’t have done.

~ F.d. Lee

In spite of his Cold War credentials, Kennedy still believed in the power of words.

~ Stephen L. Carter

Don't burn your bridges until you build better ones.

~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Negotiation is permissible for mediocrity not for excellence.

~ Amit Kalantri

Write like you speak with the 'rhythms of human speech,' as William Zinsser said, and in as few words as possible. Use action verbs to carry water.

~ Sandra E. Lamb

The Sun Tzu School Ping-fa Directive. Be strong and continually aware. Manage your strength and that of others. When essential, engage on your terms. Be observant, adaptive, and subtle. Do not lose control. Act decisively. Conclude quickly. Don't Fight!

~ David G. Jones

Note to the wise: whenever someone insists that he wants to buy something from you, but tells you there’s no real value in it yet, two things are happening: he’s lying, and you’re being taken.

~ Mike Stackpole

Be persistent, be persistent, they say. But please, do not mistake being a pest for being persistent.

~ Nike Thaddeus

Diplomacy is the art of getting what you want without offending anyone too badly.

~ Christopher Nutall

Do not compromise on the quality and your customers will not negotiate on the price.

~ Amit Kalantri

Policy makers and business leaders take note: money matters. But often the best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table—so that people can focus on the work rather than on the cash.

~ Daniel H. Pink

You need a team for war, not for negotiation.

~ Amit Kalantri

Anger travels faster, conscience is slower! Angers goes ahead to destroy long before conscience lately arrives to regret! Don't try to keep anger just for a while... It destroys before negotiations!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

Buy laughter with tears, and you'll be rich forever.

~ Michael Bassey Johnson

We're fascinated by the words--but where we meet is in the silence behind them.

~ Ram Dass

One sticking point was that Jobs wanted his payout to be in cash. Amelio insisted that he needed to have skin in the game and take the payout in stock that he would agree to hold for at least a year.” Jobs resisted. Finally, they compromised: Jobs would take $120 million in cash and $37 million in stock, and he pledged to hold the stock for at least six months.

~ Walter Isaacson

Fatigue could be the dealmaker's friend.

~ H.w. Brands

Diplomacy was like a card game. The difference was that you never really knew the value of the cards in your own hand.

~ Tom Clancy

Just being nice is not a winning strategy. Nice sends a message that the woman is willing to sacrifice pay to be liked by others. This is why a woman needs to combine niceness with insistence, a style that Mary sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, calls relentlessly pleasant. This method requires smiling frequently, expressing appreciation and concern, invoking common interests, emphasizing larger goals, and approaching the negotiation as solving a problem as opposed to taking a critical stance. Most negotiations involve drawn-out, successive moves, so women need to stay focused... and smile.No wonder women don't negotiate as much as men. It's like trying to cross a minefield backward in high heels. So what should we do? Should we play by the rules that others created? Should we figure out a way to put on a friendly expression while not being too nice, displaying the right levels of loyalty and using we language? I understand the paradox of advising women to change the world by adhering to biased rules and expectations. I know it is not a perfect answer but a means to a desirable end. It is also true, as any good negotiator knows, that having a better understanding of the other side leads to a superior outcome. So at the very least, women can enter these negotiations with the knowledge that showing concern for the common good, even as they negotiate for themselves, will strengthen their position.

~ Sheryl Sandberg

Where two principles really do meet which cannot be reconciled with one another, then each man declares the other a fool and a heretic

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

As long as people are talking instead of fighting, nobody loses very much blood—unless he happens to bite his tongue.

~ David Eddings

The thing about negotiations, not to mention the manipulation, is you can't go too far in any direction. Refusing once is good, twice is usually okay but a third is risky. You never know when the third person will stop playing and you end up with nothing.

~ Sarah Dessen

One sticking point was that Jobs wanted his payout to be in cash. Amelio insisted that he needed to have skin in the game and take the payout in stock that he would agree to hold for at least a year.

~ Walter Isaacson

Gabe scratched his double chin. Maybe if you hurry with the seven-layer dip...And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game.Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing Soprano for a week.

~ Rick Riordan

The most important thing a man has to tell you is what he’s not telling you,” he said. “The most important thing he has to say is what he’s trying not to say.

~ Robert A. Caro

He could follow someone’s mind around, and get where it was going before the other fellow knew where it was going.

~ Robert A. Caro

In a negotiation, we must find a solution that pleases everyone, because no one accepts that they MUST lose and that the other MUST win… Both MUST win!

~ Nabil N. Jamal

In a negotiation, we must find a solution that pleases everyone, because no one accepts that they must lose and that the other must win... Both must win!

~ Nabil N. Jamal

World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.

~ Richard Holbrooke

There's no road map on how to raise a family: it's always an enormous negotiation.

~ Meryl Streep

More and more couples are having this negotiation or discussion, but I'm still amazed at the number who aren't and where the cultural norm sort of kicks in and they just assume that mom's got to be the one who stays home, not dad.

~ James Levine

You can only end a negotiation for peace if you begin it.

~ Benjamin Netanyahu