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About this quote

What does it mean?
This is a practical proverb about accepting what is available. It advises taking a lesser option when the ideal is out of reach.
In plain terms
Take what you can get if you cannot get the best.
What can you take from it?
Practicality is better than waiting for perfection.

Where it applies

  • career decisions
  • resource allocation
  • negotiations

Putting it to work

  • making difficult choices
  • planning with limited resources
  • managing expectations

Questions to consider

  • When is settling actually wise?
  • How do we know when to keep looking?

Another view

It might encourage settling too early for a bad option.

More from Nikita Khrushchev

  1. Politicians are the same all over: they promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

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  2. When you are skinning your customers you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.

    Permalink to quote #12
  3. He who cannot eat horsemeat need not do so. Let him eat pork. But he who cannot eat pork, let him eat horsemeat. It's simply a question of taste.

    Permalink to quote #9

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