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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.

-Condoleezza Rice

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I Love Sports. I

Condoleezza Rice

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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.

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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

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.

What The United States Has Done Hasn't Always Been Liked Or Popular. But If You Look At Some Of The Most Populous Places In The World - China, India - The United States Is Not Only Respected But, In Fact, Popular.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Any Country, If You Don't Have Countervailing Institutions, The Power Of Any One President Is Problematic For Democratic Development.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

[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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

I've Speculated About What My Life Might Have Been Like As A Musician, But I'm Afraid I Came To The Conclusion That I Probably Would've Either Been Teaching Piano Or Maybe Gotten To Play At Nordstrom's Department Store.

[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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

We Have Had Some Bad Incidents And There Continue To Be Allegations Of Others Which Will Be Investigated; But Overwhelmingly American Forces There, Putting Their Lives On The Line Every Day, Protecting Iraqis, Helping To Liberate Them, That Is Appreciated By The Iraqi People And By The Prime Minister.

Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness.

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

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.

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

We've Got To Get Back To A Sense Of An American Identity, And That Identity Is Not Nationality Or Religion Or Ethnicity. It Is A Particular Idea, And That Idea Is That You Should Live In Liberty And You Should Be Able To Pursue Happiness.

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.

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

I Believe In Having A Private Life.

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

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.

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 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.

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'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.

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.

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

Punish France, Ignore Germany, And Forgive Russia.

We Have Our Differences With Russia. And Some Of Those Differences Produce Conflict. But By No Means Is This The Soviet Union. We Have Far More Areas Of Cooperation With Russia Than We Have Areas Of Conflict.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

No American President Can Support An Egypt That Calls Into Question The Historic Treaty Between Israel And Egypt. And No American President Can Support An Egypt That Doesn't Fully Recognize Women's Rights Or The Rights Of Religious Minorities.

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

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.

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 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.

I Believed Afghanistan Was Always Going To Be Hard. It's The Fifth Poorest Country In The World. And When You Fly Over It, You Realize That There's Not Much There. And, Of Course, It Has The Problem, Too, Of Being On That Border With Pakistan In Basically An Ungoverned Region That Has Given The Terrorists A Staging Ground. So It's A Very Difficult Place. But I Do Believe That The Mission There Can Succeed If Success Is Defined As Helping The Afghans To Prevent The Taliban From Being An Existential Threat To The Afghan Government.

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

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

Finding Yourself

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.

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.

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.

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

Being Successful

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

There Are Many Other Arrows In Our Diplomatic Quiver.

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.

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 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 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 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.

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

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Democratic Ideals

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

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

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

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.

Differences Can Be A Strength.

African American

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.

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

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.

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

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

Prove Them Wrong

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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'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.

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

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

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.

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.

America Is A Country That Went Through An Extremely Difficult Set Of Circumstances Out Of 9/11. And We've Survived It As A Country, And I Think We've Survived It As One People. And We All Ought To Be Concentrating On Trying To Make Sure That We Move Forward As One People Out Of That Terrible Experience.

Search For Role Models You Can Look Up To And People Who Take An Interest In Your Career. But Here's An Important Warning: You Don't Have To Have Mentors Who Look Like You. Had I Been Waiting For A Black, Female Soviet Specialist Mentor, I Would Still Be Waiting. Most Of My Mentors Have Been Old White Men, Because They Were The Ones Who Dominated My Field.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

The United States Is Willing To Exert Strong Leadership To Give Diplomacy Its Very Best Chance To Succeed.

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 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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

Out Of Struggle Very Often Comes Victory.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

To Say That People Around The World Deserve The Same, The Same Life That We Have In The United States, The Same Freedoms That We Have, That Seems To Me, Humble. I Think It's Humble To Say That The United States, Which Has Been Given So Much, Should Give Back.

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

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

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

Homeland Security

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Separation Of Powers Is A Problem For Foreign Policy.

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.

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

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

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