Welcome to our collection of negotiation quotes, where we delve into the timeless wisdom and insights offered by great minds on the art and science of negotiation. Negotiation is a fundamental aspect of human interaction, present in both personal and professional realms. Whether you’re brokering a business deal, mediating conflicts, or navigating everyday conversations, the ability to negotiate effectively can be a powerful tool for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes.
Throughout history, philosophers, leaders, and negotiators from diverse backgrounds have shared their perspectives on negotiation, offering invaluable lessons and inspiration for those seeking to hone their negotiation skills. From Sun Tzu’s strategic wisdom in The Art of War to modern-day experts in the field of negotiation theory, there exists a rich tapestry of quotes that illuminate various facets of negotiation, including strategy, communication, empathy, and compromise.
Below, you’ll find a curated selection of quotes that encapsulate the essence of negotiation, spanning different eras, cultures, and contexts. Feel free to explore these quotes, whether for personal reflection, professional inspiration, or to enhance your presentations and materials with their wisdom and eloquence.
World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation. Richard Holbrooke
You have to persuade yourself that you absolutely don’t care what happens. If you don’t care, you’ve won. I absolutely promise you, in every serious negotiation, the man or woman who doesn’t care is going to win. Felix Dennis
Police in China can do whatever they want; after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise that they don’t have to obey their own laws. In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want – not only you, your whole family and all people like you. Ai Weiwei
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
While we have agreed to pay the E.U. tens of billions of pounds in the Withdrawal Agreement, the Political Declaration that aimed to set out the principles for this future negotiation is a document deliberately vague to allow it to mean all things to all people. Jo Johnson
The ‘that’s right’ breakthrough usually doesn’t come at the beginning of a negotiation. It’s invisible to the counterpart when it occurs, and they embrace what you’ve said. To them, it’s a subtle epiphany. Christopher Voss
I don’t want to stop and build protectionism out there, but I certainly don’t mind tough negotiation with our trade partners. Asa Hutchinson
Our Second Amendment rights are not up for negotiation. Greg Gianforte
MPs should be able to debate, amend and approve a mandate for the negotiation of any trade agreement before talks start, based on an independent impact assessment of what social, economic and environmental risks might be expected. Barry Gardiner
The Taliban has not, in my judgment, in any significant way changed their fundamental goal and objective, which is to take over Afghanistan and return to running that country. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have negotiation talks with them. I think we should. But we’ve got to be clear-eyed about it. Jack Keane
What I really think of myself as is a person who’s great at negotiation coaching and consulting. Christopher Voss
What is happiness other than a negotiation between reality and your dreams? It’s understanding that you give up something for something else. I feel like that’s been how I’ve been trying to be happy, although in my DNA there’s more of a depressed person. Mark Ruffalo
The options are war versus peace, and I am delighted that, so far, it appears that peaceful negotiation has won the day. Valerie Plame
Very few negotiations are begun and concluded in the same sitting. It’s really rare. In fact, If you sit down and actually complete your negotiation in one sitting, you left stuff on the table. Christopher Voss
Regardless of what you plan to use it for, the goal should always be to raise money right before you need it. You don’t want to get into a situation where you need cash and you’re unable to raise it – or you’re unable to raise it on favorable terms. As with any negotiation, you want to raise from a position of strength. Neil Blumenthal
Everything is negotiable. Whether or not the negotiation is easy is another thing. Carrie Fisher
You have to understand that every negotiation isn’t about taking everything off the table. It’s cliche, but you have to try and make sure the other side feels good and you feel good. Because in my business, when I make a deal, it just means once we’re done negotiating, we have to go off and work together. Maverick Carter
All over the world when you test men and women for facial cue recognition, women test… better. It’s a negotiation tool. Michael Gurian
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has denounced negotiation with Iran as a ‘historic mistake’ that is making the world ‘a more dangerous place.’ His partners in Washington vigorously echo that view. Stephen Kinzer
The best move you can make in negotiation is to think of an incentive the other person hasn’t even thought of – and then meet it. Eli Broad
I have, from time to time, stopped using it for books, when they pissed me off about something – the negotiation with Hachette, for instance. I thought that was outrageous bullying, and I discontinued using Amazon for books. I did use it for socks, but I didn’t use it to buy books. Sonny Mehta
I think, with a negotiation, you have to go in knowing what you want, knowing what your bottom line is, and knowing what you might accept if you’re absolutely pushed. Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Iranians and Persians are excellent at the art of negotiation. Donald Trump
Obviously, having served in wars myself, I’m eager to do everything possible to avoid them, but our military capability vis-a-vis a country like Iran is a major source of leverage in any negotiation that we should never, ever give up. Evan McMullin
Negotiation is empathy. It’s almost trite to say that if you can’t put yourself in the seat of the other person you’re speaking with, you’re not going to do well. It’s not about being a bully, not about making offers people can’t refuse. Marc Randolph
There I was – 20 years old, living in Ireland, and I’d never heard the word ‘venture capitalist.’ But I’d said that I wanted a job that involved a lot of negotiation, a lot of yelling at people on the phone, and for it to be high-risk, high-reward. Chris Sacca
I’m a transactional lawyer, which involves a lot of negotiation. If nothing else, that’s given me a good eye for human motivation and frequent case studies in peculiar psychological quirks. I think that’s served me fairly well as a writer. Paul S. Kemp
But Germany is a reflective power: even as it adapts, a belief in the importance of restraint, deliberation, and peaceful negotiation will continue to guide its interactions with the rest of the world. Frank-Walter Steinmeier
The first rule of negotiation is to always be willing to walk away from the deal. The first rule of happiness is to not be attached to pleasing moments. Tara Stiles
Human beings are born solitary, but everywhere they are in chains – daisy chains – of interactivity. Social actions are makeshift forms, often courageous, sometimes ridiculous, always strange. And in a way, every social action is a negotiation, a compromise between ‘his,’ ‘her’ or ‘their’ wish and yours. Andy Warhol
You can only end a negotiation for peace if you begin it. Benjamin Netanyahu
Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance. Claire Danes
Any negotiation on the basis of land for peace is a fatal mistake. Avigdor Lieberman
When you expect to get into a negotiation, you expect to be faced by a guy that’s going to attack you, a guy or gal that’s going to attack or that they’re going to try to get the best of you. Two-thirds of us, that makes us very defensive. Christopher Voss
Negotiation in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree. Dean Acheson
The secret to gaining the upper hand in a negotiation is to give the other side the illusion of control. Don’t try to force your opponent to admit that you are right. Ask questions, that begin with ‘How?’ or ‘What?’ so your opponent uses mental energy to figure out the answer. Christopher Voss
Even during negotiation with HAL, Dassault felt that the cost with which the HAL will produce will be far higher than the aircraft produced in France. That was the reality. Nirmala Sitharaman
I believe that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. Siegfried Sassoon
Emotions aren’t the obstacles to a successful negotiation; they are the means. Christopher Voss
When I was a child it was very clear what I was allowed to see and what I was not allowed to see and there was no discussion or option or negotiation. Whatever my mom said, that’s what went down. Yul Vazquez
A writer who doesn’t need the money gains power and is dangerous in a negotiation. Don Winslow
The most difficult thing in any negotiation, almost, is making sure that you strip it of the emotion and deal with the facts. And there was a considerable challenge to that here and understandably so. Howard Baker
I think each negotiation should be based on what’s the best decision – taking everything into account, not taking one thing into account. Tony La Russa
Everybody talks about tariffs as the first thing. Tariffs are the last thing. Tariffs are part of the negotiation. The real trick is going to be increase American exports. Get rid of some of the tariff and non-tariff barriers to American exports. Wilbur Ross
When you start to work with someone, there’s a negotiation that takes place involving what’s going to happen when you have a difference of opinion. Most attempts at collaboration never survive the negotiation. Merely being agreeable is not enough. Walter Becker
During a negotiation, it would be wise not to take anything personally. If you leave personalities out of it, you will be able to see opportunities more objectively. Brian Koslow
Negotiation is often described as the art of letting the other side have your way. You have to give the other side a chance to put stuff on the table voluntarily. Christopher Voss
There is no possible negotiation with these killers. Our aim is to win over terrorism. Only by being firm we can stop terrorism. We must be firm fighting the terrorists and opposing the final aims they want to achieve. Jose Maria Aznar
What is negotiation but the accumulation of small lies leading to advantage? Felix Dennis
I’ve grown up a little bit. I understand the importance of the negotiation. It is a collective act. Thom Mayne
Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation. Richard M. Nixon
Nixon had been to China. He had been to Russia doing arms negotiation. And so, he was on his way toward what happened in November, which was an electoral win with 49 states. And the sheer unnecessariness of the Watergate break-in is something that must have tormented him and his allies in all of the years that followed. Thomas Mallon
Negotiation means getting the best of your opponent. Marvin Gaye
The most dangerous negotiation is the one you don’t know you’re in. Christopher Voss
In the cloud, customers don’t want a six-month contract negotiation; that concept is absurd when you can implement a cloud-based suite from beginning to end in a month or a few months. Safra A. Catz
Successful negotiation is not about getting to ‘yes’; it’s about mastering ‘no’ and understanding what the path to an agreement is. Christopher Voss
When it comes to salary negotiation, don’t forget that salary is only one term of employment. What else is on the table – vacation time, benefits, bonuses, flex days? Before determining that these terms are ‘must-haves’ or ‘giveaways’ to get a bigger salary, find out what the counterpart has to offer. Christopher Voss
It is high time that the international community tell Saddam Hussein and his regime that this is not an issue of negotiation with the U.N. about obligations that they undertook in 1991. Condoleezza Rice
I got an agent when I needed one, when I had a contract negotiation for the first time. I was doing the Second City E.T.C., and I got invited to audition for the last season, it turns out, of ‘In Living Color.’ Scott Adsit
In my years as the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator, I learned an important fundamental lesson: Hostage negotiation is often nothing more than a business transaction. Christopher Voss
When I left university I got a job with Shell on their graduate scheme. One of my roles was as a commercial manager for liquid natural gas shipping, project economics and contract negotiation. Liz Truss
When it comes to China, there are genuine giants that need to be conquered and dragons to tame. Protecting intellectual property rights and leveling the playing field for international trade are serious matters that must be resolved. But that will happen through honest negotiation. Neil Bush
So much of life is a negotiation – so even if you’re not in business, you have opportunities to practice all around you. Kevin O’Leary
I’m taking a break, if you will. Days’ was going through a renewal negotiation and not knowing where they were going to go. Greg Vaughan
There’s always a negotiation that goes on to persuade people we are coming to the subject with an open mind but without surrendering too many pawns. We don’t want to misrepresent the fact that we will draw our own conclusions. Louis Theroux
I believe it’s a real tedious hostage negotiation to have a marriage be what it is. Brad Garrett
Making movies is all about compromise, negotiation, and sacrifice, but the process helps you distill what’s really important to you, and once you have identified what those these things are for any particular sequence, you hold onto them and don’t let them go. Miguel Sapochnik
In law school, we studied the famous book ‘Getting to Yes,’ co-written by the head of the Harvard Law School Negotiation Project. Erin O’Toole
There are a lot of things behind a negotiation process. Jorginho
People typically only believe they’re in a negotiation when dollars are involved. And maybe sometimes they’re smart enough to see if there’s a commodity that you can count being exchanged. And, of course, the commodity that we most commonly exchange is money. Christopher Voss
In reality, every single negotiation involves another commodity that’s far more important to us, which is time – minutes, hours, our investment in time. So even if you’re talking about dollars, the commodity of time is always there because there has to be a discussion about how the commodity of dollars is moved. Christopher Voss
Negotiation is not a policy. It’s a technique. It’s something you use when it’s to your advantage, and something that you don’t use when it’s not to your advantage. John Bolton
There are all sorts of cries that the leaders of the Green Movement should submit themselves to the supreme leader, but that won’t take place. Both sides have to be prepared for a serious negotiation. Abdolkarim Soroush
Playing football helped me to gain self-discipline, confidence, negotiation skills, teamwork and leadership. Marcel Desailly
If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation – and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress. Henry Kissinger
There’s no road map on how to raise a family: it’s always an enormous negotiation. Meryl Streep
But if it happens that we will need one day the help of other countries, help in organizing this, maybe mediation or negotiation, of course any country that would like to help us with this question is invited. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
While hereditary chiefs inhabit the apex of our traditional social systems, it would be a mistake to think they hold all the power. They aren’t kings. They aren’t dictators. They’re answerable to their clans and their matriarchs. All decisions that affect our communities require lengthy, deliberate discussions and careful negotiation. Eden Robinson
This death cult has no reason and is beyond negotiation. This is what makes it so frightening. This is what causes so many to engage in a sort of mental diversion. They don’t want to confront this horror. So they rush off in search of more comprehensible things to hate. David Brooks
If you’re a politician, you might want to learn the Buddhist way of negotiation. Restoring communication and bringing back reconciliation is clear and concrete in Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh
Social change doesn’t happen in the Arab region through dramatic confrontation, beating, or indeed, baring of breasts, but rather through negotiation. Shereen El Feki
The problem with car dealerships is you’ve already decided what you want to buy before you even go there, and you’re really just going there to talk through some annoying negotiation. Elon Musk
Other countries around the world make employees and retirees first in the priority. For example, in Mexico, the bankruptcy laws say if a company wants to go bankrupt… obligations to employees and retirees will have a first priority. That has an effect on every negotiation that takes place with every company in Mexico. Elizabeth Warren
It’s very rare you get a director who’s that invested in the actors. So yeah, when ‘Little Fish’ came around, there wasn’t much negotiation! Martin Henderson
If your first objective in the negotiation, instead of making your argument, is to hear the other side out, that’s the only way you can quiet the voice in the other guy’s mind. But most people don’t do that. Christopher Voss
The best messages in any given negotiation are really implied indirectly, come to the other person based on thinking that you’re getting them to do – getting them to get some really solid thought behind their answers. And so a great thing to send someone in an email is, ‘Have you given up on this project?’ Christopher Voss
If you come to a negotiation table saying you have the final truth, that you know nothing but the truth and that is final, you will get nothing. Harri Holkeri
All training is negotiation, whether you’re training dogs or spouses. Ian Dunbar
Our identities really are a constant negotiation between the story we tell about ourselves and the narrative our societies like to recite. Thomas Chatterton Williams
The audition process is like playing games at times, where you have to pass many levels. Sometimes, you could pass the contract negotiation level, but in the end, the producer may decide to use a different actor instead. Fala Chen
The negotiation of city space has been made more difficult with the idea that redevelopment is an improvement for some vague future – but it’s never like that, is it? Once you get there, for economic reasons you have to generate the next project – so you’re immediately starting to dig up something else, and so it goes on. Iain Sinclair
To resolve problems through negotiation is a very childish approach. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The thing is that war is the opposite of negotiation. It’s when you cannot negotiate, when you cannot talk, when you cannot reach agreements that then you have war. Ingrid Betancourt
Sometimes you hear that many politicians vote for a bill in various forms before they vote against it, or vice versa. The conflict, negotiation, and eventual compromise involved in this process form the essence of the democratic process. Jared Polis
In the early stages of negotiation software, on your smartphone, there may be programs that listen to the pitch of a voice, or that test for stress. You’ll just ask the program, ‘Was he lying? Was he eager to do business with me?’ Maybe the computer will be right sixty per cent of the time. Tyler Cowen
We recognize that NAFTA is a three-country agreement, and we need a three-country negotiation. Chrystia Freeland
Everything is a negotiation. Everything is a little bit of give and take. Lamman Rucker
During the negotiation process, it’s common for misconceptions to occur, since both parties assume what the other person is saying or thinking. This can lead to conflicts or disagreements. John Rampton
The macro of any negotiation is that the only time you can cut a deal is when both sides are hurting. If either side is – is well and feeling happy, you can’t get a deal. Then they go for victory. You need – if they’re willing to settle for things the other side can live with, it’s because they’re hurting a little bit. Dick Morris
Simple logic dictates that if you cannot even conceive the possibility of leaving a negotiation, then it is preferable never to enter one. Yanis Varoufakis