This is easily one of the best, all-time great quotes about mediation:

When we begin our mediation training and practice, we often hear (and speak) of the magic of mediation. When it works, it truly is wondrous. It’s easy to see why a mediator feels like a wizard with supernatural powers, enabling lambs to lie down with lions. Based on my experience in the realms of magic and mediation, here is my hope.

Once upon a time, if you could take a cup of water, put it in a box, push a button, and make that water boil — without raising the temperature inside the box — you’d have a miracle on your hands. Ditto for talking to someone, or even seeing them in real time, on the other side of the planet — or even in outer space! How magical is that! And yet, thanks to technology, even the youngest child is jaded by these daily experiences.

My fondest wish is that our social evolution keeps pace with our technological progress, so that the peaceful resolution of disputes will similarly become as commonplace as microwaves and mobile devices. Then it will no longer seem that mystical forces -or card tricks, or magic pennies — are needed to bring together the bitterest of enemies for a common purpose.

From Jerry Lazar, a mediator by day and magician by night, who explores the magic of mediation at his delightfully titled blog, Fight Nicely.

(With thanks to Vickie Pynchon who makes magic of her own at Settle It Now Negotiation Blog.)

Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.

~ Frank Tyger

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We must be governed by the force of law, not by the law of force.

~ William Sloane Coffin, Jr., 1924 - 2006

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.

~ Saul Alinsky

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Feelings and ideas are renewed, the heart enlarged, and the understanding developed only by the reciprocal action of men one upon another.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance.

~ Robert Quillen

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man’s observation, not overturning it.

~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears—by listening to them.

~ Dean Rusk

- Author unknown

- Hamilton Mabie

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead

The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be
victory, but progress.

Joseph Joubert

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.

- William Ellery Channing

We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone…and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.

- Sandra Day O’Connor

Today in the U.S. we commemorate Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday honoring the two U.S. presidents born during this month–George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The following quote is from Lincoln, who studied law and became a successful attorney long before he contemplated a run for the White House.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man.