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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.

-Condoleezza Rice

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American National Security And

Condoleezza Rice

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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.

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I Think Our Dependence On Foreign Oil Is A Real Problem, Potential Achilles Heel, And We Have To Do Something About It.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

I Stick To Playing Brahms, But I Love Listening To Led Zeppelin, And I've Also Been A Big Fan Of Earth Wind And Fire Since The Seventies And Of The Gap Band Since The Eighties.

I Have Several [favorite Clothes Designers], But I Like To Wear Akris, Oscar De La Renta And Giorgio Armani.

Does Anybody Think These People Were Just Sitting Around Drinking Tea?

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.

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.

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.

Diplomacy, If Properly Practiced, Is Not Just Talking For The Sake Of Talking.

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.

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.

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

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.

Democratic Openings That Come About In That Way - The Overthrow Of A Totalitarian Government By External Powers - It Makes It Really Hard To Make Those First Steps Toward Democracy.

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

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

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

Homeland Security

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

You Have To Have A Strong Sense Of Your Values And A Strong Sense Of Who You Are, Because There Are A Lot Of Events And A Lot Of People Who Will Pull You In This Direction Or That Direction.

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

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.

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.

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

Your Friends And Your Family, If You're Close To Them, They Won't Let You Get Too Far From Who You Were Or From Who You Are. And So I Love Staying Close To People Who've Always Known Me. That's Probably The Best Leavening That You Could Possibly Have.

There Is Nothing Better Than Being In A Classroom With Really, Really Brilliant Students, And Opening Up New Worlds To Them. That's What I Love Doing.

After All, When The World Looks To America, They Look To Us Because We Are The Most Successful Political And Economic Experiment In Human History.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

We Are At War, And Our Security As A Nation Depends On Winning That War.

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.

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

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

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

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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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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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.

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.

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

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We've Organized Human Potential And Have Been Better At Using Human Potential Better Than Any Country On The Face Of The Earth. That's Because We've Recognized That Our National Creed, Our National Identity, Is That It Doesn't Matter Where You're From, It Matters Where You're Going. You Can Come From Hard Circumstances And Do Great Things. We've Got To Make That True For A Whole Variety Of People Who No Longer Feel That.

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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.

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

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.

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.

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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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I've Never Really Been A Workaholic.

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The Growth Of Entrepreneurial Classes Throughout The World Is An Asset In The Promotion Of Human Rights And Individual Liberty, And It Should Be Understood And Used As Such. Yet Peace Is The First And Most Important Condition For Continued Prosperity And Freedom. America's Military Power Must Be Secure Because The United States Is The Only Guarantor Of Global Peace And Stability. The Current Neglect Of America's Armed Forces Threatens Its Ability To Maintain Peace.

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.

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.

I Love To Watch Football.i Actually Really Love To Watch Almost Any Competition With A Score At The End.

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

The Quicker We Get About The Business Of Reducing Our Reliance On Oil The Better.

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.

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.

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

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

Punish France, Ignore Germany, And Forgive Russia.

Education Is Of No Value And Talent Is Worthless - Unless You Have An Unwavering Aim. Never Find Yourself Without A Compass.

Finding Yourself

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

My Job Is To Try To Advance American Foreign Policy, To Try To Advance The President's Agenda On Democracy And Human Rights.

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

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.

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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.

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'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.

The United States Has Been Very Clear That We Did Have To Have Some Political Basis To Make Clear That That Cessation Of Hostilities Was Not Going To Countenance A Return To The Status Quo Ante. This Resolution Does That. And Now We're Going To See Who Is For Peace And Who Isn't.

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

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.

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.

You Will Make A Difference In The World, But Not Immediately. Your First Obligation Is To Find Something You Like Doing, Because If You Like Doing It, You'll Do It Well.

Making A Difference

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

We're Not Going To Negotiate About The Terms Of Terrorism. You Don't Negotiate About Terrorism. It's Is Wrong To Engage In Terrorism, And There Isn't Anything To Negotiate.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

I Am Proud Of The Decision Of This Administration To Overthrow Saddam Hussein. I Am Proud Of The Liberation Of 25 Million Iraqis. And I'm Proud To See An Iraq That Is Now Emerging With A Stronger Government, A Truly Multiethnic, Multi-sectarian Government That's About To Have Its Second Set Of Elections, That's Inviting Private Investment Into Iraq, And That Is Making Peace With Its Arab Neighbors.

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

[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.

I'm Actually Genuinely Optimistic About The United States And What's Possible In The United States. And When You're Out Here, You See Americans Across Racial And Economic And Socioeconomic Lines Working Together. And You Maybe Get A Little Bit Less Cynical Than When You Sit In The Seat Of Kind Of The Epicenter Of It All.

Working Together

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

Democratic Ideals

Every Good Leader Is Part Manager And Every Good Manager Is Part Leader.

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 Know That People Look At My Life And Ask, "how Can I Achieve Some Of Those Things?" So, I Suppose In That Sense, Yes, I'm A Role Model. But I Try To Think Of Myself More As A Mentor, As Somebody Who I Hope Young People Feel Comfortable Approaching Or Writing To.

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.

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

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

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

We Still Go Out And Elect People Who We Think Are Going To Govern And Better Our Interests. So We May Not Have The Same Confidence In The People We Elect, But We Still Go Out And Elect Them.

Message And Policy Are Very Much A Part, You Know, Two Parts Of The Same Coin.

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.

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

Prove Them Wrong

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.

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

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

So I Think, If September 11 Taught Us Anything, It Taught Us That We're Vulnerable, And Vulnerable In Ways That We Didn't Fully Understand.

I Worry That The Weakness - Particularly Of Our Public Schools - Is Going To Make That Less And Less True For Everybody. And If We Ever Lose That As Our Core, Then We're Going To Lose Our Confidence. We're Not Going To Lead. We're Going To Protect. We're Going To Turn Inward. That Would Be Very Bad For The World. So As A Former Secretary Of State, I Think I Can Advocate For Education As A National Security Priority.

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.

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 Never Much Cared For Politics. I Love Policy, And I Love International Policy In Particular. I Got To Be Secretary Of State; It Really Doesn't Get Much Better Than That. I Love What I Do. I Love Being A Professor.

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.

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

Sometimes People Decide To Write Reports Even Though They Haven't Been To Guantanamo . And So I Would Just Suggest That People Look At Some Of The Work That's Been Done By People Who Have Been There. But That's Not To Say That We Will Not Be Very Glad At The Day That Conditions Permit The Closure Of Guantanamo And The Trying Of Its Inhabitants Or For Their Release.

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.

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.

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.

If You're Always In The Company Of People Who Agree With You, You're Going To Think Of People Who Don't Agree With You As Venal Or Stupid. I Constantly Tell My Students That If They're In The Company Of People Who Always Say "amen" To What You Say, Find Other Company. And That Is The Source Of Illiberalism, When You Are Unable To Listen To Someone Who Thinks Differently. That's When Democracies Are In Trouble.

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.

What You Know Today Can Affect What You Do Tomorrow, But Not What You Did Yesterday.

America's Still A Very, Very Powerful Symbol And A Very Important Place Of Leadership For The World.

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.

Differences Can Be A Strength.

African American

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

Well, There Are Many Things, Whenever You Look Back, That You Would've Done Differently. We're All Human. We Do Our Best At The Time. I Really Wish That We Had Passed A Comprehensive Immigration Bill Because That Would've Really Helped Our Country. We Came Close, But We Couldn't.

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.

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.

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

Mass Destruction

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.

We're In A New World. We're In A World In Which The Possibility Of Terrorism, Married Up With Technology, Could Make Us Very, Very Sorry That We Didn't Act.

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

What We're Hearing From Everyone Is That They Understand That Saddam Hussein Is A Threat. They Understand That He's Been A Threat For A Long Time.

Truly Remarkable Leadership Is Not Just About Motivating Others To Follow, It's About Inspiring Them To Become Leaders Themselves And Setting The Stage For Even Greater Opportunities For Future Generations.

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.

You Never Cede Control Of Your Own Ability To Be Successful To Something Called Racism.

Being Successful

A Lot Is Being Done To Bring Additional Protective Measures, Particularly The Critical Infrastructure Locations Around The United States, ... There Is A Very Active ... Program Of Coordination On This Particular Period Of Time With Both Public And Private Entities And At The Federal, State And Local Levels.

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.

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 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'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."

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

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

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

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

Today's Headlines And History's Judgment Are Rarely The Same. If You Are Too Attentive To The Former, You Will Most Certainly Not Do The Hard Work Of Securing The Latter.

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

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.

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

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 Worry A Great Deal About All Of Those Surveys That Are Out That Americans, In Particular, Are Becoming Distrustful Of Our Institutions - That Americans Are Beginning To Say They're Either Irrelevant Or They're Corrupt Or They Certainly Don't Speak To Me. But The Institutions Are Actually Still Functioning.

Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness.

I've Found My Place In Life, That I'm Passionate About, My Talents And My Passion Have Merged, And I'm Trying To Do The Best That I Can.

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.

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 Most Important Lesson I Think I Could Impart Is Don't Let Anyone Determine What Your Horizons Are Going To Be. You Get To Determine Those Yourself. The Only Limitations Are Whatever Particular Talents You Happen To Have And How Hard You're Willing To Work. And If You Let Others Define Who You Ought To Be, Or What You Ought To Be Because They Put You In A Category, They See Your Race, They See Your Gender And They Put You In A Category. You Shouldn't Let That Happen.

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.

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.

We Have To Recognize That The Reason That The Global Order That We've Enjoyed And Almost Take For Granted Over The Last Several Years Exists Is That After World War Ii, The United States And Its Allies Tried To Build An Antidote To What They Had Seen Between World War I And World War Ii. There, They'd Seen Protectionism, Beggar-thy-neighbor Trading Policies, So They Said, We'll Build An Open International Economy. And They Did That.

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.

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

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.

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.

Differences Can Be Strength Rather Than A Handicap.

Our Effort To Build Stability Through Authoritarians In The Middle East For 60 Years Had Given Us Neither Democracy Nor Stability.

I Remember At The Time Of 9/11 That There Were Women Who Went Out Of Their Way To Escort Muslim Women To Grocery Stores Because They Wanted To Be Sure That They Didn't Experience Any Prejudice. And So I'm Not One Who Believes That America Is A Country That's Intolerant. It's The Most Tolerant Country In The World, And I Really Think That It's Unfortunate That A Number Of People Are Trying To Paint America With This Brush. I Just Don't See It.

But I Want To Just Caution, It Is Not Incumbent On The United States To Prove That Saddam Hussein Is Trying To Acquire Weapons Of Mass Destruction. He's Already Demonstrated That He's Trying To Acquire Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

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.

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.

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Anthony Burgess

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