Daily Inspiration Quote by George P. Shultz

Washington, in Shultz's telling, is less a capital than a perpetual motion machine: argument as atmosphere, conflict as weather. The line lands because it’s delivered with the resigned clarity of someone who has actually had to govern inside that system, not merely complain about it from the outside. "Nothing ever gets settled" isn’t a pundit’s gripe; it’s a diagnostic from a manager of statecraft, the kind of official who measures reality in tradeoffs and deadlines.

The phrase "seething debating society" is doing two jobs at once. It mocks the city’s self-image as rational and deliberative, while admitting that the heat is the point: people "never give up" because the stakes (power, ideology, history) reward persistence. Shultz’s slyest move is the parenthetical "including me". It punctures any pose of innocence. He’s confessing complicity in the very culture he critiques, which makes the observation feel less like cynicism and more like hard-earned honesty. He’s not above the scrum; he’s inside it, contributing to the noise.

Context matters: Shultz served at the top of the American foreign-policy machinery, where "settled" is often a luxury and administration is less about final answers than temporary, workable arrangements. The subtext is a warning to anyone who thinks governance is about winning an argument. In this town, you administer in the middle of the fight, not after it. The real skill isn’t persuasion; it’s stamina, coalition-building, and an ability to act while the room is still arguing.