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Consensus building doesn't necessarily fit with my experience.

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

I don't think consensus-building politics is what I'm meant to be doing.

Consensus isn't just about agreement. It's about changing things around: You get a proposal, you work something out, people foresee problems, you do creative synthesis. At the end of it, you come up with something that everyone thinks is okay. Most people like it, and nobody hates it.

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.

You can't forge a new sort of consensus, you can't forge public opinion, by following public opinion.

A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.

I look for the consensus because the consensus drives the policy into new places.

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.

It has been the way of Rotary to focus thought upon matters in which members are in agreement, rather than upon matters in which they are in disagreement.