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.
We are concerned with that curious bunch of nonconformists who explain their participation in negative terms: that bunch of do-gooders that goes under all sorts of names - liberals, leftists, etc. These are the people who argue that they are not responsible for white racism and the country's 'inhumanity to the black man.'
I never wanted to be a part of planet Earth, but I am compelled to be here, so anything I do for this planet is because the Master-Creator of the Universe is making me do it. I am of another dimension. I am on this planet because people need me.
This was not an act of terrorism, but it was an act of war.
Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future.
Movement is my medicine, my meditation, my metaphor and my method, a living language we can rely upon to tell us the truth about who we are, who we are with, and where we are going. There is no dogma in the dance.
In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
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