"If people, whether they are conservative or..." - Quote by Barack Obama
If people, whether they are conservative or liberal, left or right, are unwilling to compromise and engage in the democratic process, and are taking absolutist views, and demonizing opponents, then democracy will break down.
More by Barack Obama
“You Can't Rest on Your Laurels. Your Own Body of Work Is Yet to Come.”
“That's what building a body of work is all about. It's about the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime to a lasting legacy. It's about not being satisfied with the latest achievement, the latest gold star, because the one thing I know about a body of work is that it's never finished. It's cumulative. It deepens and expands with each day you give your best. You may have setbacks and you may have failures, but you're not done.”
“There was a time when if you had a financial crisis in Southeast Asia somewhere, it had no impact on our markets. Today it does.”
More on Democracy
“Only an educated and informed people will be a free people.”
“Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.”
“Mahatma Gandhi I would say had perhaps a greater spiritual quality whereas Winston Churchill had besides the courage, ability and above everything else, the ability to put into words what his people felt so that he could always lead them. And my own husband I think had great patience, which you need in a democracy because you have to come to do fundamental things, you have to have the patience to have people educated; and then I think he had a deep interest in human beings as human beings.”
More on Compromise
“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.”
“When a company or an individual compromises one time, whether it's on price or principle, the next compromise is right around the corner.”
“He must understand that if he is the world's finest plum and someone he loves does not like plums, he has the choice of becoming a banana. But he must be warned that if he chooses to become a banana, he will be a second rate banana. But he can always be the best plum.”