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America Cannot Do Most Of What Needs To Be Done Alone. You Need Friends. And We Have Good Friends Around The World. We Have Friends With Whom We Share Values In Europe And Asia - Thanks To The Forward March Of Democracy - In Latin America, In Africa, And Increasingly In The Middle East.

-Condoleezza Rice

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America Cannot Do Most

Condoleezza Rice

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America Cannot Do Most Of What Needs To Be Done Alone. You Need Friends. And We Have Good Friends Around The World. We Have Friends With Whom We Share Values In Europe And Asia - Thanks To The Forward March Of Democracy - In Latin America, In Africa, And Increasingly In The Middle East.

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Everyone Wants Russia To Be A Prosperous, Democratic State That Is Fully Integrated.

In America, With Education And Hard Work, It Really Does Not Matter Where You Came From; It Matters Only Where You Are Going.

You Know, As Secretary Of State, I've Been Privileged To Represent This Great Country, And I Know Its Strengths, And I Know Its Challenges. One Of Its Strengths Is The Belief - Here And Abroad - That This Is A Place Where You Get Ahead On Merit. It Doesn't Matter Where You Came From; It Matters Where You're Going.

I Remember Classes In College Where The Professor Was Espousing Certain Theories About How Blacks Were Inherently Less Intelligent. But I Learned A Long Time Ago To Give People The Benefit Of The Doubt, Not To Assume That Somebody Was Reacting To You Because Of Race.

To See An African-american Elected President Means That This Country Is Really Finally Coming Full Circle From The Birth Defect Of Slavery.

You Cannot Be On One Hand Dedicated To Peace And On The Other Dedicated To Violence. Those Two Things Are Irreconcilable.

I'm A Strong Believer That You Have To Have An Equal Opportunity To Fail And To Try Things That Are Hard. I Always Tell My Students, "don't Just Take Things That Are Easy For You. If You're Really Good At Math, Don't Take Just Math. Take Classes That Make You Write. If You're A Really Great Writer, But Bad At Math, Take Math And Make Yourself Work Your Way Through It."

The First Republican I Knew Was My Father And He Is Still The Republican I Most Admire. He Joined Our Party Because The Democrats In Jim Crow Alabama Of 1952 Would Not Register Him To Vote. The Republicans Did. My Father Has Never Forgotten That Day, And Neither Have I.

Well, Of Course, All Of The Statistics Say There Are Fewer Eligible Black Men In My Circle. But I've Never Thought Of It That Way. I Believe That If The Right Person Came Into My Life That Would Have Been Terrific.

The Political Face Of Europe Is One That Has Said Very Clearly That It Wants Cooperation And Friendship With The United States.

Differences Can Be A Strength.

African American

I Think That One Of The Greatest Challenges We Have Today Is Around Education. One Of The Things That Is Dividing Us More And More Is Whether You Have Good Prospects Or You Don't. Do You Live A Neighborhood Where The Schools Are Good? If You Don't, Your Kids May Not Read Until The Time They're In Third Grade. Do You At Least Have Access To A Community College That Will Give You Job Training Skills So That If You Don't Go For Four Years You Will At Least Come Out With A Decent Job And A Decent Wage. Too Many People Don't Have That Opportunity.

I Do Think People Have Suggested That It Would Be A Good Thing If The Reporting Were Accurate On Al-jazeera And If It Were Not Slanted In Ways That Appear To Be At Times Just Purely Inaccurate.

Separation Of Powers Is A Problem For Foreign Policy.

Any Time You Have A Situation In Which You Are Calling For More Time Rather Than Calling For Iraq To Immediately Comply, It Plays Into The Hands Of Saddam Hussein.

It's So Much A Part Of Me That It's Almost Hard To Describe Myself In The Absence Of [faith].

Describe Myself

U.s. Officials Never Expected That 'we Were Going To Open Garages And Find' Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

Our Work Has Only Begun. In Our Time We Have An Historic Opportunity To Shape A Global Balance Of Power That Favors Freedom And That Will Therefore Deepen And Extend The Peace. And I Use The Word Power Broadly, Because Even More Important Than Military And Indeed Economic Power Is The Power Of Ideas, The Power Of Compassion, And The Power Of Hope.

In Light Of 50 Years Of Bondage Of Eastern Europe, [invading The Soviet Union In 1948 To Prevent It From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons] Was Probably A Reasonable Thing To Do.

...if You Are Overdressed, It Is A Comment On Them. If You Are Under Dressed, It Is A Comment On You.

The Essence Of America - That Which Really Unites Us - Is Not Ethnicity, Or Nationality Or Religion - It Is An Idea - And What An Idea It Is: That You Can Come From Humble Circumstances And Do Great Things.

[my Favorite Dish To Cook] Is Fried Chicken, And By The Way I'm Good At It, Too. I Make Really Good Fried Chicken.

I Don't Think That Anybody Could Have Predicted That These People Would Take An Airplane And Slam It Into The World Trade Center, Take Another One And Slam It Into The Pentagon, That They Would Try To Use An Airplane As A Missile.

I've Been An Athlete All My Life. I Was A Competitive Figure Skater, And Then When I Realized Skating Was Not An Adult Sport I Took Up Tennis And Played That Quite Seriously From The Time I Was About 18.

Unless We Improve Our Ability To Provide A Quality Education For Underprivileged Kids, We're Not Going To Really Overcome In A Massive Way Our Past.

We [usa] Need To Deal With Our Problems Here At Home If We're Going To Be Strong Enough To Lead Abroad.

There Is Not Going To Be Any Pass For Palestinian Leadership In Fighting Terror.

Education Is Transformational. It Changes Lives. That Is Why People Work So Hard To Become Educated And Why Education Has Always Been The Key To The American Dream, The Force That Erases Arbitrary Divisions Of Race And Class And Culture And Unlocks Every Person's God-given Potential.

It Was Actually Fun To Write [memoir], Because I Went Back To Interview People My Parents Had Taught Or Who Had Worked With Them, And I Learned A Lot About Them That I Hadn't Known.

You Can Never Ask Others To Do Something You Would Not Do. That Is Integrity.

If You Cannot Allow People To Do Their Jobs ... Nobody With Substance And Creativity Will Work For You.

I Really Do Fervently Believe That Every Child Deserves To Have The Kind Of Access To Educational Opportunities, Broadly Defined, Including Music And Sports, That I Enjoyed. So, I'm Trying To Do My Part, And I Believe That All Of Us With A Privileged Background Who Are Fortunate Enough To Have Had That Kind Of Access Have A Responsibility To Try To Pass It On.

Now, Al Qaeda's On The Run. Afghanistan Is No Longer A Base Of Operations. The Afghan Government Is A Friendly Government That Is Trying To Bring Democracy To Its People.

I Never Found Anybody I Wanted To Spend My Life With. People Say, "didn't You Want To Get Married?" Well, Sure, But It's Not Abstract, There Has To Be Someone You Want To Marry. I'm Pretty Traditional. Marriage Would Have To Come First, Before Kids.

As I Was Telling My Husb — As I Was Telling President Bush.

It Is A Dangerous Thing To Ask Why Someone Else Has Been Given More. It Is Humbling - And Indeed Healthy - To Ask Why You Have Been Given So Much.

[in] The United States, We've Always Been Held Together By The Belief That It Doesn't Matter Where You Came From. It Matters Where You're Going.

People Want To Psychoanalyze Me, But The Fact Is, I'm Not That Complicated. I'm Pretty Straightforward. And I'm Not All That Self-reflective, Because I Tend To Be A Doer.

Straightforward

I Certainly Think That The World Views The United States As A Place To Be Respected. All Over The World Our Values Are Respected; Who We Are, A Place That You Can Come And Come From Modest Circumstances To Great Things, That's Respected.

Human Beings Are Not Perfect. Their Institutions Are Not Perfect, But They Have To Keep Trying. And America Has To Help People Keep Trying.

The United States Government Does Not Authorise Or Condone Torture Of Detainees. Torture, And Conspiracy To Commit Torture, Are Crimes Under Us Law, Wherever They May Occur In The World.

It's So Much A Part Of Me That It's Almost Hard To Describe Myself In The Absence Of It. I Know That For Me It Means Asking For Guidance, And That In The Toughest Times There's A Personal Savior That I Can Rely On. And I'm Very Grateful To My Parents For Giving Me That.

I Don't Think Anybody Could Have Predicted That They Would Try To Use An Airplane As A Missile, A Hijacked Airplane As A Missile.

It Was Really Wonderful Playing With Aretha [ Franklin]. I Knew That She Knew What She Was Doing, So All I Had To Do Was Sit In The Background And Vamp A Little Bit.

I Think The Word Of The United States Has Been As Good As Gold In Its International Dealings And Its Agreements.

We're In The Middle Of The Transformation Of A Society That Has Handled Its Politics Through Repression To A Society That Will Handle Its Politics Through Democratic Institutions.

We Can't Afford To Let The International Community And The World Lose Faith In The Diplomatic Track.

I Find That The Great Majority Of Public Servants Across The Entire Political Spectrum Come Because They Believe In The United States And They Want To Change The World.

I Use The Word Power Broadly. Even More Important Than Military And Economic Power Is The Power Of Ideas, The Power Of Compassion, And The Power Of Hope.

I'm Not Personally Fearful, But I Look Out, And There Are A Number Of Things That Concern Me, And I'm Hopeful That We Can Overcome Them.

When You Have Big Historic Changes, There Are Going To Be Ups And Downs... There Are Going To Be Peaks And Valleys. Some Things Are Going To Go Right. Some Things Are Going To Go Wrong. But As Long As The Strategic Direction Is Going In The Right Way, That's Really What You Have To Judge.

I May Not Agree With Everything, But Our President, Just Like President [george W.] Bush Did, Is Trying To Do His Best Under Difficult Circumstances.

Well, There's Been Plenty Of Ultimatums, And One Thing That We Better Be Very Clear Is That We Can't Continue To Have The Kind Of Defiance Of The United Nations, The Defiance Of The International Community That We've Had.

[i'm] Very Fortunate And Blessed Person Who Still Has A Lot Of Living To Do.

We Don't Want The Smoking Gun To Be A Mushroom Cloud.

I'm Very Glad My Mother Didn't Let Me Quit Piano Lessons At Age 10. She Said I Wasn't Old Enough Or Good Enough To Make That Decision, And She Was Right. I Remember At The Time I Was Shocked. I Did Not Like That My Mother Said Those Things To Me. But When I Got A Chance To Play With Yo-yo Ma Or More Recently With Aretha Franklin, I Thought, I'm Really Glad She Said What She Did.

There's No Doubt That It's Still A Dangerous Place, Afghanistan. The Fortunate Thing Is That The United States Was Helping To Provide Security For Chairman Karzai. And It Shows That The United States Is Committed To That Regime.

It Hasn't Yet Materialized That I Went Into Sports Management, But I Haven't Ruled It Out Yet, Either. I Only Half-jokingly Remarked That I'd Love To Be The Commissioner Of The Nfl. But As I Recently Told Current Commissioner Roger Goodell, That Job Looked A Lot More Appealing When I Was Struggling With The Russians And The Iranians Everyday.

I Don't Know Anyone Who Is More Admired And Respected In The International Community Than President Karzai, For His Strength, For His Wisdom And For His Courage To Lead This Country First In The Defeat Of The Taliban And Now In Rebuilding A Democratic And Unified Afghanistan. And I Can Tell You I Am With Foreign Ministers And With Heads Of State All Over The World. I Sit In The Councils Of Nato. I Sit With The Eu. I Sit With People All Over The World And There Is Great Admiration For Your President And Also For What The Afghan People Are Doing Here.

But The Truth Of The Matter Is, We're An Open Society, We Want To Remain An Open Society, And There Will Continue To Be Vulnerability. That's Why We Have To Meet The Threats When They Are Not Yet Taking Place On Our Territory And On Our Soil.

It Is A Longstanding Principle That Sitting National Security Advisers Do Not Testify Before The Congress.

It's Important To Russia To Be Able To Attract Capital And To Attract Technology To Develop Their Oil Fields, Their Oil And Gas Fields, Many Of Which Suffer From Lack Of Access To The Very Best Technologies. And It's Also Important, And This Has Been The Us Government's View To Have Diversification Of Supply, Diversification Of Supply Roots And, Of Course, Diversification In Terms Of Alternative Energy.

The Pursuit By The Iranian Regime Of Nuclear Weapons Represents A Direct Threat To The Entire International Community, Including To The United States And To The Persian Gulf Region.

Race Is A Constant Factor In American Life. Yet Reacting To Every Incident,real Or Imagined, Is Crippling, Tiring, And Ultimately Counterproductive.

And We Believe That Our Policies Toward Iraq Simply Are To Protect The Region And To Protect Iraq's People And Neighbors.

Well, I Didn't Feel That I Could Do Justice To This Story Of My Parents And Their Generation, And All That They Did To Make It Possible For Me To Be Who I Am, If I Sort Of Just Put It At The Beginning Of A Book About My Last Eight Years In Foreign Policy.

You Might Not Be Able To Control Your Circumstances But You Can Control Your Response To Your Circumstances.

You Know, I've Never Believed, In Anything, That You Had To Have Role Models Who Looked Like You To Do Something. If I'd Been Waiting For A Black, Female, Soviet Specialist Role Model, I'd Be Still Waiting.

When I Went Off To College, I Was Expecting To Be A Concert Musician. In Music School I Heard All Of These Kids Who Were Just Unbelievable. And I Understand That You Can Be Very, Very Good, But There's Something That Separates Very, Very Good From Great, And I Knew That I Wasn't Great.

We Have Important Things To Talk To The Russians About, Despite Their Meddling In Our Elections. I Hope They're Talking About A Way To Eventually End This Horrific Humanitarian Crisis In Syria, End That War. The Russians Have More Leverage Than We Do. I Hope They're Talking About The Fact That, If Kim Jong-un's Long-range Missiles Can Reach Alaska One Day, They Can Also Reach Vladivostok.

Most Days Are Not Overwhelmingly Successful In Your Life. And What Really Marks Whether You're Going To Be Successful Is How Well You Deal With The Bad Days, Not How Well You Deal With The Good Ones.

Being Successful

Self Esteem Comes From Achievements. Not From Lax Standards And False Praise.

I'm Happy And Content In My Life, And I Chalk That Up To Wonderful Parents And A Wonderful God.

My Mom Was A Teacher - I Have The Greatest Respect For The Profession - We Need Great Teachers - Not Poor Or Mediocre Ones.

America Is A Remarkable Place In That Social Attitudes Change Almost Imperceptibly, And Then You Wake Up The Next Day And They've Changed. But They've Been Changing All The Time.

The Iranian People Have A Proud Past. They Merit A Great Future.

Working Very Closely With The Department Of Homeland Security To Match Up What Is Available With What Is Needed.

Homeland Security

This Is Not 1968 And The Invasion Of Czechoslovakia, Where Russia Can Threaten Its Neighbors, Occupy A Capital, Overthrow A Government, And Get Away With It. Things Have Changed.

I've Never Really Been A Workaholic.

We Need To Move Beyond The Idea That Girls Can Be Leaders And Create The Expectation That They Should Be Leaders.

I Do Have A Favorite Zeppelin Song, Larry, Black Dog.

If I Wrote A Book, I Had To Be Willing At Least To Talk About Some Of My Struggles, Whether In My Personal Life, Health Crises, Or The Deaths Of My Parents, Because There Can Too Easily Be A Perception Of Me That My Life Just Went From A To Z Uninterrupted, Without Any Ups And Downs, And That's Not A Fair Representation.

Today's Headlines And History's Judgement Are Not The Same.

I Play A Lot Chamber Music.as For Something That's Hard For Me To Play, Before I Leave This Earth I'm Hoping To Play Brahms' Second Piano Concerto.

Oh, Indeed There Is A Tie Between Iraq And What Happened On 9/11. It's Not That Saddam Hussein Was Somehow Himself And His Regime Involved In 9/11, But, If You Think About What Caused 9/11, It Is The Rise Of Ideologies Of Hatred That Lead People To Drive Airplanes Into Buildings In New York.

America Cannot Do Most Of What Needs To Be Done Alone. You Need Friends. And We Have Good Friends Around The World. We Have Friends With Whom We Share Values In Europe And Asia - Thanks To The Forward March Of Democracy - In Latin America, In Africa, And Increasingly In The Middle East.

But, Clearly, The Prime Minister Has Laid Down Some Ground Rules Which Any Functioning Democratic State Would Insist Upon, Having To Do With, You Know, Arms Belonging To The State, Not To -- Not In Private Hands. The Current Circumstances Come Out Of What I Think Is A Very Important And Indeed Appropriate Action That The Iraqi Government Has Taken.

I'm Very Proud That We Stood For The Proposition That No Man, Woman Or Child Should Ever Have To Live In Tyranny. We Believed In Democracy And Promoted It.

Your Passion May Be Hard To Spot, So Keep An Open Mind And Keep Searching.

I'm Very Proud That President [george W.] Bush Took On Aids Relief. It Was The Largest Single Response By Any Country To A Major International Health Crisis, And There Are Millions Of People Who Are Alive Today In Africa And Other Developing Countries Because Of That Program.

Great Leaders Never Accept The World As It Was And Always Work For The World As It Should Be

American National Security And American Economic Interests, Of Course - Every President, Every Secretary Of State - That Is The Primary Goal. As You Are In This Job And In The Work, You Begin To See, Though, That In The Long Run, Both American Economic Interests And American National Security Are Better Served When There Are Other Decent Countries In The World Who Are Both Your Allies And Even When Your Adversaries Are Acting More Decently.

I Learned A Lot About My Parents, Who Were Both Teachers. I Had Known That My Parents Were Very Strongly In Favor Of Education. I Had Known That They Had An Impact On A Lot Of People, But People Came Out Of The Woodwork Who Have Said, "you Know, Without Your Father, I Would Never Have Gone To College," Very Successful People. And So I Learned How Widespread Their Educational Evangelism Really Was.

The Sooner You Learn That Life Is Not Fair, The Better Off You'll Be, Because You'll Spend Less Time Railing Against Life's Unfairness And Feeling Aggrieved And Entitled, And More Time Figuring Out How To Maximize Your Assets, And Your Talents And How To Deal With Things That You're Not Very Good At.

Punish France, Ignore Germany, And Forgive Russia.

Life Is Full Of Surprises And And Serendipity. Being Open To Unexpected Turns In The Road Is An Important Part Of Success. If You Try To Plan Every Step, You May Miss Those Wonderful Twists And Turns. Just Find Your Next Adventure-do It Well, Enjoy It-and Then, Not Now, Think About What Comes Next.

There Are Many Other Arrows In Our Diplomatic Quiver.

When Are We Going To Stop Making Excuses For The Terrorists And Saying That Somebody Is Making Them Do It? No, These Are Simply Evil People Who Want To Kill.

There Was No Silver Bullet That Could Have Prevented The 11 September Attacks. There Was Nothing Demonstrating Or Showing That Something Was Coming In The United States. If There Had Been Something, We Would Have Acted On It.

People May Oppose You, But When They Realize You Can Hurt Them, They'll Join Your Side.

You Know, I Look At Vladimir Putin As Somebody Who Is An Eye-for-an-eye Kind Of Person. We Questioned The Legitimacy Of His Election In 2012, Secretary Clinton Did - Rightly, By The Way. It Did Have - It Was Quite Fraudulent.and So I Think He's Saying Now, I'm Going To Show You That I Can Do The Same Thing.

What Surprised Me Was The Angst At Our Democracy. And I Understand It - I Teach At A University And Feel It In My Students - But What I've Tried To Say To People Is That We Have Amazing Institutions, But Nobody Ever Said We Were Perfect. We Struggled Before And We're Struggling Now, And We're Going To Struggle Every Day. We're A Work In Progress. That's Why The American Experience Is So Important For Us To Remember, And For Us To Be A Beacon For Others To Enjoy Those Same Rights.

I Believe Our Presidents Work Hard And It's The Loneliest Job In The World.

My Favorite Quote Is Thomas Jefferson`s "the God Who Gave Us Life Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time." Well, He Was A Slave-owner. But These Institutions, While They Weren't Perfect At The Time, Did Allow People To Prosper And To Continue To Struggle And Build Toward Them. That's What You Need, Is Good Institutions And I Think People Will Eventually Live Up To Them.

The Moral Case Is, People Say, "oh They're Not Ready For Democracy," But That's Something Someone Who Lives In A Democracy Would Say About Someone Who Doesn't Live In A Democracy. Well, If Democracy Is The Highest Form Of Human Potential, Then It Can't Be True For Us And Not For Them. But, The Practical Case Is Democracies Don't Invade Their Neighbors. Democracies Don't Traffic In Child Soldiers. Democracies Don't Harbor Terrorists As A State Policy. So There's A Reason To Have More Democratic States.

We Can't Live True To Our Set Of Values Unless American Educational System Is Strong. I Really Believe That If We Don't Get That Right We Will Not Compete Because We Won't Believe That Our People Can Compete, And We'll Turn Inward. We Won't Lead. That Will Be Bad For The World.

Ultimately, We Didn't Go To Germany To Create A Democracy. We Went To Overthrow Adolf Hitler. But Once A Democracy Was There, Germany Was A Much Bigger Supporter Of And Help To Our National Interests, Both Economic And Security Than Had Ever Been Before.

If A North Korean Ballistic Missile Can Reach Alaska, It Can Reach Vladivostok.

I Laugh Almost Everyday. I Have A Good Sense Of Humor, So I'm Always Finding Something Funny.

What We Will Not Wait For Is That Particular Nexus Of Terrorism, Weapons Of Mass Destruction That Is Extremism, And The Technology To Come Together In A Way That Is Harmful To The United States.

Mass Destruction

There Have Been Plenty Of Markers That Show That This [iraq] Is A Country That Is Worth The Investment, Because Once It Emerges As A Country That Is A Stabilising Factor, You Will Have A Very Different Kind Of Middle East.

Nato Is Built On Security, But It's Also Built On Values.

The United States Has No Credible Evidence That Iraq Moved Weapons Of Mass Destruction Into Syria Early Last Year Before The U.s.-led War That Drove Saddam Hussein From Power.

Mass Destruction

My Fox Guys, I Love Every Single One Of Them.

Richard Clarke Had Plenty Of Opportunities To Tell Us, In The Administration, That He Thought The War On Terrorism Was Moving In The Wrong Direction And He Chose Not To.

I Play Classical Music Almost Exclusively. I Never Mastered Jazz Or Gospel In The Way That My Mother Did. She Was A Fine Improvisational Musician. I Pretty Much Have To Stick To What's Written On The Page.

But We Do Have Confidence In Our Institutions. We Are Not Russia. We Have An Executive That Is Constrained. We Have A Legislature That Is Real. We Have A Press That Is Free. We Have Courts That Are Independent. This Is Not Russia.

Have Confidence

I Get Letters From Kids From All Over The Country. I Always Try To Answer Them Because There Were People I Looked Up To In My Youth And Just Wanted To Be In Contact With. It's Also Important To Realize That You Find Your Role Models In A Lot Of Different Places. I've Never Believed That Your Role Models Have To Look Like You. You Can Find Them In All Sort Of Colors, Shapes And Sizes.

Arnold Rampersad Is A Really Good Person. A Really Good Person. As A Matter Of Fact, He Came To Stanford When I Was Provost.

For 60 Years, My Country, The United States, Pursued Stability At The Expense Of Democracy In This Region, Here In The Middle East, And We Achieved Neither.

Every Life Is Worthy And Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness. We Have An Obligation To Make Sure That Opportunity For Greatness Is There.

I'm A Terrible Long-term Planner.

You Do Have To Keep In Mind As You're Going Through Extraordinarily Difficult Circumstances, That If You Stay True, True To Your Values, If You Stay True To Your Principles, If You Believe In These Values, Then You Can Work In That Context To Right Policies That May Not Be Working.

I Don't Believe For A Minute Anybody Allowed People To Suffer Because They Are African Americans.

I Think There Are Plenty Of Men Out There Who Are Capable And Accomplished In Their Own Realm. You Don't Have To Be In The Same Field. I've Often Been Asked, "didn't You Want To Get Married?" And Of Course I Wanted To Get Married, But You Have To Fall In Love And Want To Marry A Particular Person. You Don't Get Married In The Abstract. So, Although There Were People I Felt I Might Have Married, It Just Never Happened.

Falling In Love

Multiethnic Character Of America Is Very Attractive To People. They Also See A Place Where You Get Ahead, Not Because Of Where You Came From, But Because Of Where You Want To Go.

I'm Saying There Is No Way That I Will Do This, Because It's Really Not Me. I Know My Strengths, And Governor Romney Needs To Find Someone Who Wants To Run With Him. There Are Many People Who Will Do It Very, Very Well, And I'll Support The Ticket.

We Needed To Go Back On The Offense And Offer Clear Leadership On Iraq.

This System, Built On Free Markets, Free Trade And Free Peoples And American Protection, That's What Got Us From The End Of World War Ii To The Extraordinary Events Of The End Of The Cold War And A System That Was One Of Prosperity And Peace For A Lot Of People, Including For The United States.

Iran Can And Should Be A Responsible State, Not The Leading State Sponsor Of Terror.

I Think My Father Thought I Might Be President Of The United States. I Think He Would've Been Satisfied With Secretary Of State. I'm A Foreign Policy Person And To Have A Chance To Serve My Country As The Nation's Chief Diplomat At A Time Of Peril And Consequence, That Was Enough.

One Of The Signs That Things Are Going Reasonably Well For Democracy Is That We Have The States Where They're Closer To The People. Federalism Is A Strength. We Have All Of These Civil Society Institutions - Civil Society Is A Very Important Hallmark Of Democracy.

The U.s. Has Since The End Of World War Ii Had An Answer - We Stand For Free Peoples And Free Markets, We Are Willing To Support And Defend Them - We Will Sustain A Balance Of Power That Favors Freedom.

There Clearly Are Contacts Between Al Qaeda And Iraq That Can Be Documented; There Clearly Is Testimony That Some Of The Contacts Have Been Important Contacts And That There's A Relationship Here

I Grew Up In A Very Loving Middle Class Family. My Parents Were Educators. I'm Not Even The First Phd In My Family. They Tried To Shield Me, Just As Other Parents In My Neighborhood Tried To Shield Their Children. But You Knew There Was A Reason That You Couldn't Go To That Theme Park Or To A Movie Theater Or To A Hamburger Stand. They Couldn't Shield You Completely. What They Did Though Was They Never Let It Be An Excuse For Not Achieving, And They Always Said Racism Is Somebody Else's Problem, Not Yours. They Tried In That Way Not To Make Us Bitter About Birmingham.

I Talked About The Need For American Leadership, I Talked About The Importance Of The United States To A More Peaceful World, A World That Has Been Quite Turbulent In Recent Years, And Needs A Strong American Anchor.

I Studied Piano From The Age Of Three. My Grandmother Taught Piano. I Stayed At Her House During The Day While My Parents Worked. I Obviously Wanted To Learn To Play. And So She Asked If She Could Teach Me, And My Mother Said Don't You Think She's Too Young. My Grandmother Apparently Said No. So I Could Read Music Before I Could Read, And I Really Don't Remember Learning To Read Music. So For Me It's Like A Native Language. When I Look At A Sheet Of Music, It Just Makes Sense.

We're All Products Of Our Environment, And I Suspect That Strength Of Will - The Feeling, "i'm Going To Be Able To Do Whatever You Put In Front Of Me" - Is Honed In An Environment Where Not Everything Is Easy. Ironically, Growing Up In That Environment, You Don't Have A Sense Of Aggrievement Or Entitlement. You Just Have A Sense Of Overcoming.

I Wish That After The War Against Saddam Hussein We Had Been More Effective At Rebuilding Iraq Quickly. I Think Had We Done It From The Provinces, In, Rather Than From Baghdad, Out, We Might Have Been More Successful.

As Americans We Like To Believe That We're Loved In International Politics Or That People Like What We're Doing. But We Also Recognize That We Have An Extraordinary Responsibility To Do What We Think Is Right, And That Sometimes What We Do Is Not Very Popular.

I Feel That We're Dividing Along Class Lines For The First Time In Our History. Now One Thing That Has Happened In This Reaction To Globalization Is That The Elites Are Not Respectful Of The Values Of Those Who Are Ordinary Citizens, So We Seem To Be Dividing Ourselves Into Ever-smaller Identity Groups, Each With Its Own Narrative, Each With Its Own Grievance, And That's A Problem.

I Think America Is Still A Bright, Shining City On The Hill - Not Because We're Perfect But Because We Struggle In Our Imperfections Every Day.

Democracy Is The Most Realistic Way For Diverse Peoples To Resolve Their Differences, And Share Power, And Heal Social Divisions Without Violence Or Repression.

Everybody In The World Is Capable Of Democratic Development. Some People In The World Are Unlucky Enough To Get Stuck With Really Bad Political Leadership And With Really Bad Political Institutions.

I Certainly Have No Regrets About Overthrowing Saddam Hussein. I'd Do It Again. And, Yes, There Are A Lot Of Things That I Think We'd All Do Differently. Maybe We Made Some Erroneous Assumptions About The Fabric Of The Society In Iraq And About The Solidity Of Some Of The Institutions. And Yes, There Are A Lot Of Things I Would Do Differently. I'd Probably Work To Rebuild Iraq From The Outside In, Rather Than Concentrating So Much On Baghdad, For Instance.

I Don't Think Anybody Can Take The Word Of Saddam Hussein And His Regime, And Certainly An American President And Allies Who Are Obligated To Worry About The Safety And Security Of Our Countries, Cannot Take The Word Of This Dictator, Who Lies, Pathologically Lies.

I'm A Committed Republican. I Believe Very Strongly In Individual Liberty. I Tend Not To Think Much In Terms Of Group Politics. I Really Am A Kind Of Small Government Person And I'm Most Certainly A Fiscal Conservative And Strong On National Defense.

I Really Wish That We Had Passed A Comprehensive Immigration Bill Because That Would've Really Helped Our Country.

I Didn't Run For Student Council President. I Don't See Myself In Any Way In Elected Office. I Love Policy. I'm Not Particularly Fond Of Politics.

It Is High Time That The International Community Tell Saddam Hussein And His Regime That This Is Not An Issue Of Negotiation With The U.n. About Obligations That They Undertook In 1991.

I Love Sports. I Play Golf Now, Which Is Relatively New For Me. I Only Took It Up About Five Years Ago. I Also Like Playing Piano, And I Love Being With My Family And Friends.

Leading In A Complex World Means Recognizing The Simple Things You Can Do To Make Things Better.

I Find It Odd That Suddenly People Believe The United States Is This Islamophobic Country. I Think This Is The Most Tolerant Country In The World.

But In Terms Of Saddam Hussein Being There, Let's Remember That His Country Is Divided, In Effect. He Does Not Control The Northern Part Of His Country. We Are Able To Keep Arms From Him. His Military Forces Have Not Been Rebuilt.

Power Is Nothing Unless You Can Turn It Into Influence.

I Will Never Forget The Bright September Day, Standing At My Desk In The White House, When My Young Assistant Said That A Plane Had Hit The World Trade Center - And Then A Second One - And A Third, The Pentagon.

The People Of The Middle East Share The Desire For Freedom. We Have An Opportunity - And An Obligation - To Help Them Turn This Desire Into Reality.

I Really Believe That You Can. Not Only Do I Think It Is A Part Of Public Service To Help Young People Find Their Way, Just As Professors Had Helped Me Find Mine, But I've Been Very Involved In K-12 Education Issues. I Started A Program Back In 1992 Called The Center For A New Generation, An Afterschool Enrichment Program.

There's No Greater Challenge And There Is No Greater Honor Than To Be In Public Service.

It Takes Courage To Set Priorities Because Doing So Is An Admission That American Policy Cannot Be All Things To All People - Or Rather To All Interest Groups

Hillary Clinton Is Somebody Of Great Intelligence. She Is Somebody Who Really Loves This Country, Who Speaks Forcefully And Well For American Interests And Values.

I Firmly Believe You Never Should Spend Your Time Being The Former Anything.

If I Can Look At Your Zip Code And I Can Tell Whether You're Going To Get A Good Education, We've Got A Real Problem.

I've Always Said That I Expected To Grow Up And Get Married Like Any Nice Southern Girl, But The Fact Is You Don't Get Married In The Abstract. You Find Someone That You'd Like To Be Married To.

When Diplomacy Has Been Exhausted, The Security Council Must Become Involved. Questions About Iran's Nuclear Activities Remain Unanswered, Despite Repeated Efforts By The Iaea.

I've Never Really Been A Workaholic. I Work Very Hard, But I Also Enjoy Playing. I Think It's Important To Have A Balanced And Well-rounded Life.

I've Always Said As A Political Scientist That "culture" Is What We Use When We Can't Explain Things. I Think It's More About Accessibility. Part Of The Problem Is That This Is An Expensive Game [golf]. I Know In A Couple Of Places Where There Are Black Members, And They Come From Pretty Much The Same Socioeconomic Level That The White Members Come From.

There Are Some Places That Have Had Real Quarrels With The United States' Policies, But I Think The Country Is Very Well-respected Worldwide.

It Has Been Hard To Muster The Resources To Support Fledgling Democracies And To Intervene On Behalf Of The Most Desperate. The Aids Orphans In Uganda, The Refugee Fleeing Zimbabwe, The Young Woman Who Has Been Trafficked Into The Sex Trade In Southeast Asia. It Has Been Hard, Yet This Assistance Together With The Compassionate Work Of Private Charities, People Of Conscience And People Of Faith, Has Shown The Soul Of Our Country.

I Believe That Reverend [florine] Thompson's Hit On Something. My Parents, I And A Lot Of My Friends Growing Up In That Community Had Tremendous Drive.

The First Step For A Leader Is To Be Right With Yourself. Integrity Is The Basis Of Leadership.

The Pdb (bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.s.) Does Not Say The United States Is Going To Be Attacked. It Says Bin Laden Would Like To Attack The United States. I Don't Think You, Frankly, Had To Have That Report To Know That Bin Laden Would Like To Attack The United States.

We've Been A Country That's Been Fortunate To Be Protected By Two Oceans, To Not Have Serious Attacks On Our Territory For Most Of Our History. And We Were Unfortunately Reminded In A Very Devastating Way Of Our Vulnerability.

I Think All Of Us Have Really Got To Redouble Our Efforts, First Of All, To Pay Attention To The K-12 Crisis. The Sad Fact Is That I Can Look At Your Zip Code And Tell Whether You're Going To Get A Good Education. That's Not Fair. And Secondly, I Hope That All Of Us Who Were Fortunate Enough To Have Benefited Will Put Our Time, Our Resources And Our Efforts Into Making Sure That Kids, Particularly Kids Without Means, Have A Way To Achieve.

In The Segregated South, Education Was Almost Like Armor. It Was A Way To Put Yourself In A Category Where Even With The Slings And Arrows And Humiliations Of Racism And Segregation, Somehow You Had Better Control Of The Situation. I Always Said My Parents Understood That You Might Not Be Able To Control Your Circumstances, But They And Their Parents Believed That You Could Control Your Reaction To Your Circumstances.

When Somebody Underestimated Me, It Made Me Want To Prove Them Wrong.

Prove Them Wrong

Success Is Not Assured, But America Is Resolute: This Is The Best Chance For Peace We Are Likely To See For Some Years To Come - And We Are Acting To Help Israelis And Palestinians Seize This Chance.

Congratulations

I Think The Saudis Are Not Only Not Supporting Terrorism, They're Fighting It. And Why? Because It Is In Their Interests To Fight It. We Don't Agree On Everything, But I Do Believe That The Saudis For Their Benefit, They're Fighting Terrorism And Fighting It Quite Aggressively.

Prejudice And Bigotry Are Brought Down...by The Sheer Force Of Determination Of Individuals To Succeed And The Refusal Of A Human Being To Let Prejudice Define The Parameters Of The Possible.

Spirituality And Faith Are At The Core Of Who I Am. I Was Born To Deeply Religious Parents Who Were Able To Give Me That Rock Solid Foundation In The Church And In My Faith Which Really Has Served Me So Well.

For The United States, Supporting International Development Is More Than Just An Expression Of Our Compassion. It Is A Vital Investment In The Free, Prosperous, And Peaceful International Order That Fundamentally Serves Our National Interest.

What I Tell Student Athletes Is First Of All, You've Made Good Choices This Far In Order To Be Able To Be In College And To Be An Athlete. Keep Making Good Choices.

When You're In Government, Of Course, You Have Protection And You Have People Who Are Looking Out For Your Wellbeing, But You Can't Live In A State Of Fear. If You Do, You're Not Going To Do Your Job Very Well And You're Going To Give Yourself High Blood Pressure, Which Probably Isn't Worth It.

We [the United States] Believe The Iranian People Want A Future Of Freedom And Human Rights: The Right To Vote, To Run For Office, To Express Their Views Without Fear And To Pursue Political Causes. We Would Welcome The Progress, Prosperity And Freedom Of The Iranian People.

At No Time Did I Intend To, Or Do I Believe That I Did Put Forward False Information To The American People.

It Has Been, After All, 11 Years, More Than A Decade Now, Of Defiance Of U.n. Resolutions By Saddam Hussein. Every Obligation That He Signed Onto After The Gulf War, So That He Would Not Be A Threat To Peace And Security, He Has Ignored And Flaunted.

If The Strong Exploit The Weak, Democracy Will Not Be Stable.

Once A Month I Play With A Chamber Music Quartet. I Play Almost No Solo Music Anymore Because I So Enjoy The Interaction. The Members Of My Quartet Have Become Some Of My Best Friends And So I Really Enjoy It Now In Ways That I Didn't Before.

Fortunately, I Started Very Young, So I Read Music Very Well. And My Favorite Composers To Play Are Brahms And Mozart.

I Think There's Sometimes Too Much Attention To A Few People Who Do Hold Extreme Views. Most Americans Go About Their Lives Living In Communities That Are Increasingly Multiethnic, Increasingly Multi-religious. And They Are Welcoming Of People Who Are Not Like Themselves. Now, I Don't Have Rose-colored Glasses About America, Because I Grew Up In The Segregated South. But I Watch It Every Day. I Think That Americans Are Very Tolerant People.

The American Founding Fathers Gave Us Courts, Independent Jurists. They Left Room For Civil Society, Which Meant That Citizens Could Directly Associate In Order To Bring Pressure On Their Governments. And They Gave Us A Free Press. They Understood That You Might Have In The Presidency Someone Who Wanted To Arrogate Power Into Themselves. And They Believed That Was Dangerous, Having Just Experienced King George. And So They Built A Balanced System.

I Have No Doubt That As The Iraqi Security Forces Get Better, And They Are Getting Better And They Are Holding Territory And They Are Doing These Things With Minimal Help, That We Are Going To Be Able To Bring Down The Levels Of Our Forces. And I Have No Doubt That That's Going To Happen In A Reasonable Time Frame.

Even When You Cherish Democratic Ideals, It Is Never Easy To Turn Them Into Effective Democratic Institutions. This Process Will Take Decades.

Democratic Ideals

The Best Armor Against Everything Around You Is To Be Well Educated, To Work Hard, To Be Twice As Good As If You Had To Be, To Do Languages And Culture Better.

This Is The Democratic Process At Work, What You're Seeing With This Process Is The Iraqi People Embracing American-style Democracy.

I Don't Like Anything That's "just An Escape." To Me The Best Part Of Golf Is That, Unlike My Tennis Game, I Can Actually Get Better. I've Probably Reached My Plateau In Tennis, But In Golf I Have A Lot Of Room For Improvement. I Really Enjoy Working On My Game. I Like Practicing. I Chart My Rounds.

I Think It's Very Humble To Believe That There Is No Man, Woman Or Child Who Should Live In Tyranny. That People Who Say, Well, Maybe Arabs Just Aren't Ready For Democracy Or Maybe Africans Just Are Going To Have Corrupt Governments, That Seems To Me Arrogant.

It Is Possible To Work Across The Aisle In Washington, But It's Hard. And I Think It's Been Made Worse By The Kind Of 24-hour News Cycle, The Fact That Everything Is On Tv Before You Can Work Things Out Quietly. I Think It's The Intensity Of Information That Makes It Feel More Difficult To Get Things Done. But I Didn't Leave With A Bitter Taste About The Politics. The One Thing That I Would Say Is, I Do Think There Is An Unfortunate Tendency To Turn Political Differences, Or Policy Differences, Into Critiques Of One Another's Character Or Motives, And That's Unfortunate.

When I Said I Had Always Hoped To Marry In My Race, I Really Do Mean That. That Doesn't Mean I Absolutely Wouldn't Marry Outside Of It, But There's A Culture And Traditions To Maintain, And I Have Great Pride In Them, And I Always Thought It Would Be Wonderful To Share That With Somebody Of My Race.

First, I Wanted To Answer The Question I'm Most Frequently Asked: "how Did You Become Who You Are?" Well, You Had To Know John And Angelena Rice.

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