Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible but the read more

Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

Compromise. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he read more

Compromise. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory.

If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile--hoping it will eat him last.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile--hoping it will eat him last.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to read more

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf.

Better bend than break.

Better bend than break.

People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come read more

People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.