Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author

Letter (1962-03-02) to Pres. John Kennedy
    (Source)

Quoted in Galbraith, Ambassador’s Journal, ch. 15 (1969). On the need to seek a settlement with Hanoi over the growing conflict in Viet Nam.

"Politics is the art of the possible" was a comment by Otto von Bismarck.