It's not compatible to expect multilateralism to work and, at the same time, to expect to walk out with everything you wanted. This is a recipe for failure. If we prize the system, we have to come knowing that we will need to make compromises. Sometimes painful compromises.
Interpretation
Effective multilateralism requires compromise rather than selfish expectations.
This quote emphasizes the necessity of compromise in multilateral negotiations. Roberto Azevedo suggests that if one truly values a cooperative system, it is essential to enter discussions prepared to make concessions, even if they may be difficult or disappointing. The expectation of achieving all one's desires without collaboration is unrealistic and ultimately leads to failure.
In practice
In a diplomatic conference, when discussing trade agreements, one might quote Azevedo to emphasize the need for mutual adjustments.
To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, every inch of space is a miracle, every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same, every cubic foot of the interior swarms with the same; every spear of grass-the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that concerns them, all these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.
But I think the spirit of man is a good adversary
...What you are is a force--a force that makes it possible for your body to live, a force that makes it possible for your whole mind to dream...You are life
Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.
Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate.
The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd - The longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world’s existence. All these half-tones of the soul’s consciousness create in us a painful landscape, an eternal sunset of what we are.
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