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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.

-Condoleezza Rice

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I've Always Said As

Condoleezza Rice

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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.

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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.

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

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

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.

Differences Can Be A Strength.

African American

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.

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

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.

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.

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'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.

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

Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I've Never Really Been A Workaholic.

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.

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

Finding Yourself

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

Differences Can Be Strength Rather Than A Handicap.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Mass Destruction

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Being Successful

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

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

Homeland Security

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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There Are Many Other Arrows In Our Diplomatic Quiver.

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Have Confidence

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.

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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.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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'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.

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

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 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'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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Power Is Nothing Unless You Can Turn It Into Influence.

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.

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

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.

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'm A Terrible Long-term Planner.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Separation Of Powers Is A Problem For Foreign Policy.

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

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.

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.

Most Of The People Who Were Responsible For 9/11 Are Now In Custody Or Have Been Killed. But There Are Others, And They Plot And They Plan, And They Hope To Pull It Off Again. And While We Have To Be Right 100 Percent Of The Time, They Only Have To Be Right Once. So There's No Way To Overreact To That.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

Describe Myself

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 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'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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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 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.

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John Taylor Gatto

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