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

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

Understanding the Quote: "my mom was a teacher - i have the greatest respect for..."

This quote by Condoleezza Rice reflects deeply on the theme of mom. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Mom, Teacher, Needs, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Condoleezza Rice interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is celebrated for insightful thoughts on mom and teacher. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Mom
Teacher
Needs
More From Condoleezza Rice
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.
Teaching
Piano
Play
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.
Struggle
Thinking
Perfect
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.
People
Complicated
Straightforward
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.
Passion
Trying
Talent
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.
Airplane
Thinking
Trying
In America, With Education And Hard Work, It Really Does Not Matter Where You Came From; It Matters Only Where You Are Going.
Hard Work
America
Doe
The United States Is Willing To Exert Strong Leadership To Give Diplomacy Its Very Best Chance To Succeed.
Strong
Giving
United States
[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.
Together
United States
Matter
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.
Believe
Men
Circles
My Mom Was A Teacher - I Have The Greatest Respect For The Profession - We Need Great Teachers - Not Poor Or Mediocre Ones.
Mom
Teacher
Needs
Today's Headlines And History's Judgement Are Not The Same.
Judgement
Today
Headlines
In The Segregated South, Education Was Almost Like Armor. It Was A Way To Put Yourself In A Category Where Even With The Slings And Arrows And Humiliations Of Racism And Segregation, Somehow You Had Better Control Of The Situation. I Always Said My Parents Understood That You Might Not Be Able To Control Your Circumstances, But They And Their Parents Believed That You Could Control Your Reaction To Your Circumstances.
Racism
Parent
Segregation
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.
Attitude
Next Day
America
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.
Leadership
Wisdom
Work
The First Step For A Leader Is To Be Right With Yourself. Integrity Is The Basis Of Leadership.
Integrity
Leader
Firsts
As I Was Telling My Husb — As I Was Telling President Bush.
President
President Bush
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.
Believe
Thinking
Issues
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.
Feelings
Talent
Very Good
It Is A Longstanding Principle That Sitting National Security Advisers Do Not Testify Before The Congress.
Principles
Sitting
Congress
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.
Transformation
Middle
Institutions
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.
Struggle
Thinking
Slave Owners
You Cannot Be On One Hand Dedicated To Peace And On The Other Dedicated To Violence. Those Two Things Are Irreconcilable.
War
Hands
Two
We Need To Move Beyond The Idea That Girls Can Be Leaders And Create The Expectation That They Should Be Leaders.
Girl
Powerful
Moving
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.
Littles
Wonderful
Franklin
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.
Technology
Mass Destruction
Waiting
I Do Have A Favorite Zeppelin Song, Larry, Black Dog.
Dog
Song
Black
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.
Country
Lying
Thinking
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.
Religious
Rights
Israel
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.
Adventure
Loving Life
Thinking
Arnold Rampersad Is A Really Good Person. A Really Good Person. As A Matter Of Fact, He Came To Stanford When I Was Provost.
Matter
Facts
Good Person
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.
Country
Wish
Immigration
And We Believe That Our Policies Toward Iraq Simply Are To Protect The Region And To Protect Iraq's People And Neighbors.
Iraq
People
Neighbor
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.
Military
Compassion
Ideas
Does Anybody Think These People Were Just Sitting Around Drinking Tea?
Drinking
Thinking
People
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.
Strong
Years
Anchors
U.s. Officials Never Expected That 'we Were Going To Open Garages And Find' Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
Wmd
Mass Destruction
Iraq
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.
Real
Looks
Zips
My Fox Guys, I Love Every Single One Of Them.
Guy
Foxes
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.
Taken
Thinking
Government
I've Never Really Been A Workaholic.
Workaholic
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
People
Priorities
Groups
I Laugh Almost Everyday. I Have A Good Sense Of Humor, So I'm Always Finding Something Funny.
Laughing
Everyday
Sense Of Humor
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.
Love Is
States
Professors
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.
Thinking
Taught Us
September 11
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.
Country
Ocean
Two
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.
Differences
Making A Difference
World
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.
Strong
People
Events
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.
Kids
Past
Quality
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.
People
Democracy
Important
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.
Long
Hussein
Hearing
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.
Book
Eight
Who I Am
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.
Kids
School
College
In Any Country, If You Don't Have Countervailing Institutions, The Power Of Any One President Is Problematic For Democratic Development.
Country
President
Development
It's So Much A Part Of Me That It's Almost Hard To Describe Myself In The Absence Of [faith].
Absence
Describe Myself
Hard
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.
War
Successful
Thinking
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.
Strong
Educational
Believe
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.
Liberty
Identity
Message And Policy Are Very Much A Part, You Know, Two Parts Of The Same Coin.
Two
Coins
Messages
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.
Believe
Political
Majority
There Are Some Places That Have Had Real Quarrels With The United States' Policies, But I Think The Country Is Very Well-respected Worldwide.
Country
Real
Thinking
Every Life Is Worthy And Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness. We Have An Obligation To Make Sure That Opportunity For Greatness Is There.
Opportunity
Greatness
Life Is
There Is Not Going To Be Any Pass For Palestinian Leadership In Fighting Terror.
Fighting
Palestinian
Terror
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.
Country
Believe
World
I Don't Believe For A Minute Anybody Allowed People To Suffer Because They Are African Americans.
Believe
Race
People
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.
Running
Country
Long
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.
Country
Moving
Thinking
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.
Country
People
Community
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.
Growing Up
Feelings
Overcoming
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.
War
Mass Destruction
Years
Differences Can Be A Strength.
Differences
African American
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."
Strong
Writing
Math
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.
Running
Office
President
Separation Of Powers Is A Problem For Foreign Policy.
Separation
Problem
Foreign Policy
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.
Success
Mother
Play
At No Time Did I Intend To, Or Do I Believe That I Did Put Forward False Information To The American People.
Believe
People
Information
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.
Strong
Believe
Thinking
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.
Iran
Effort
Nuclear
Out Of Struggle Very Often Comes Victory.
Struggle
Victory
[i'm] Very Fortunate And Blessed Person Who Still Has A Lot Of Living To Do.
Blessed
Persons
Stills
Fortunately, I Started Very Young, So I Read Music Very Well. And My Favorite Composers To Play Are Brahms And Mozart.
Play
My Favorite
Young
When Somebody Underestimated Me, It Made Me Want To Prove Them Wrong.
Want
Prove Them Wrong
Made
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.
Country
Challenges
Belief
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.
Issues
Community
Hussein
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.
Thinking
United States
Doe
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.
Mother
Play
Sticks
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.
Doubt
United States
Helping
Iran Can And Should Be A Responsible State, Not The Leading State Sponsor Of Terror.
Iran
Responsible
States
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.
Community
Nuclear
Weapons
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.
Country
Iraq
Middle East
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.
Thinking
People
Interest
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.
Intelligent
College
Race
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.
Successful
America
Political
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.
Hard Work
Today
Judgment
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.
Father
Independent
Dangerous
America's Still A Very, Very Powerful Symbol And A Very Important Place Of Leadership For The World.
Powerful
America
Important
If The Strong Exploit The Weak, Democracy Will Not Be Stable.
Strong
Democracy
Weak
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.
Sports
Children
Educational
You Can Never Ask Others To Do Something You Would Not Do. That Is Integrity.
Integrity
Asks
People May Oppose You, But When They Realize You Can Hurt Them, They'll Join Your Side.
Hurt
Your Side
People
I Believe In Having A Private Life.
Believe
I Believe
I Believe In
The United States Government Does Not Authorise Or Condone Torture Of Detainees. Torture, And Conspiracy To Commit Torture, Are Crimes Under Us Law, Wherever They May Occur In The World.
Government
Law
United States
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.
Play
My Best Friend
Way
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.
United States
Bullets
September
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.
Writing
Thinking
People
You Might Not Be Able To Control Your Circumstances But You Can Control Your Response To Your Circumstances.
Might
Able
Circumstances
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.
Thinking
Race
Important
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.
Believe
Fighting
Thinking
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.
Humble
Thinking
People
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.
People
Plot
Custody
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.
Writing
People
Trying
We Can't Afford To Let The International Community And The World Lose Faith In The Diplomatic Track.
Track
Community
World
It Is A Dangerous Thing To Ask Why Someone Else Has Been Given More. It Is Humbling - And Indeed Healthy - To Ask Why You Have Been Given So Much.
Educational
Healthy
Given
Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness.
Greatness
Life Is
Capable
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.
Bad Day
Successful
Being Successful
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.
Stupid
Thinking
People
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.
Democracy
Democratic
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.
Evil People
Want
Excuse
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.
Believe
Responsibility
Thinking
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.
Terrorism
Term
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.
Real
Independent
Have Confidence
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.
Running
People
Support
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.
Children
People
Soldier
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.
People
Our Family
Staying
I Really Wish That We Had Passed A Comprehensive Immigration Bill Because That Would've Really Helped Our Country.
Country
Wish
Immigration
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.
Children
Men
Democracy
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.
Dream
Life Changing
Keys
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.
New York
Airplane
Thinking
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.
Country
Military
Doe
I Believe Our Presidents Work Hard And It's The Loneliest Job In The World.
Jobs
Believe
Hard Work
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.
Growing Up
Believe
Community
If A North Korean Ballistic Missile Can Reach Alaska, It Can Reach Vladivostok.
Korean
North Korea
North Korean
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.
Thinking
People
Would Be
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.
Worry
Speak
Irrelevant
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.
War
Important
One Day
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.
Sorry
Technology
World
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.
Play
Piano
Earth
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.
Believe
Mind
Principles
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.
Opportunity
Leader
Generations
Every Good Leader Is Part Manager And Every Good Manager Is Part Leader.
Leader
Good Man
Very Good
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.
Latin
Good Friend
Europe
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.
Thinking
Views
United States
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.
War
Years
Hussein
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.
Grateful
Mean
Giving
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.
India
United States
Looks
...if You Are Overdressed, It Is A Comment On Them. If You Are Under Dressed, It Is A Comment On You.
Comment
Ifs
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.
Thinking
Election
Kind
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.
War
People
World
My Job Is To Try To Advance American Foreign Policy, To Try To Advance The President's Agenda On Democracy And Human Rights.
Jobs
Rights
Trying
We Are At War, And Our Security As A Nation Depends On Winning That War.
War
Winning
Winner
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.
School
Thinking
Worry
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
Years
America
We Don't Want The Smoking Gun To Be A Mushroom Cloud.
Stupid
War
Gun
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.
People
Lines
Helping
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.
United States
Done
Levels
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.
School
Kids
College
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.
Determination
Prejudice
Succeed
I Firmly Believe You Never Should Spend Your Time Being The Former Anything.
Inspirational
Inspiring
Time
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.
Country
Father
Thinking
If You Cannot Allow People To Do Their Jobs ... Nobody With Substance And Creativity Will Work For You.
Jobs
Creativity
People
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.
Men
White Man
Careers
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
Men
Thinking
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.
Hands
Play
Iraq
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.
Country
Kids
Color
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.
Father
Party
Crow
The Quicker We Get About The Business Of Reducing Our Reliance On Oil The Better.
Oil
Reducing
Reliance
This Is The Democratic Process At Work, What You're Seeing With This Process Is The Iraqi People Embracing American-style Democracy.
People
Style
Democracy
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.
Identity
Problem
Respectful
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.
Children
Believe
Humble
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.
Book
Struggle
Parent
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.
Doubt
Get Better
Levels
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.
Want
Territory
Matter
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
Trying
United States
The Political Face Of Europe Is One That Has Said Very Clearly That It Wants Cooperation And Friendship With The United States.
Europe
Political
United States
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.
Trying
President
May
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.
Answers
Firsts
Wells
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.
War
World
Granted
Diplomacy, If Properly Practiced, Is Not Just Talking For The Sake Of Talking.
Talking
Sake
Diplomacy
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.
Sports
Athlete
Tennis
Most Middle-class Americans, Even Working-class Americans, Encounter Each Other Across Racial Lines All The Time, But It Gets Really Hard-core When You Get Into That Witches' Brew That Is The Combination Of Race And Poverty.
Poverty
Get Real
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.
Sports
Golf
Love Is
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.
Country
Speak
Clinton
Human Beings Are Not Perfect. Their Institutions Are Not Perfect, But They Have To Keep Trying. And America Has To Help People Keep Trying.
People
Perfect
Trying
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.
Country
People
President
Leading In A Complex World Means Recognizing The Simple Things You Can Do To Make Things Better.
Leadership
Mean
Simple
I Think The Word Of The United States Has Been As Good As Gold In Its International Dealings And Its Agreements.
Thinking
Agreement
Gold
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.
Country
Sex
Zimbabwe
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.
Running
Government
People
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.
Struggle
Perfect
People
I Never Found Anybody I Wanted To Spend My Life With. People Say, "didn't You Want To Get Married?" Well, Sure, But It's Not Abstract, There Has To Be Someone You Want To Marry. I'm Pretty Traditional. Marriage Would Have To Come First, Before Kids.
Kids
People
Married
Great Leaders Never Accept The World As It Was And Always Work For The World As It Should Be
Leader
World
Accepting
The Iranian People Have A Proud Past. They Merit A Great Future.
Past
People
Proud
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.
Optimistic
Cynical
Working Together
Punish France, Ignore Germany, And Forgive Russia.
Russia
Forgiving
Germany
What You Know Today Can Affect What You Do Tomorrow, But Not What You Did Yesterday.
Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow
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.
Country
Believe
Thinking
Power Is Nothing Unless You Can Turn It Into Influence.
Inspirational
Influence
Turns
It's Important To Russia To Be Able To Attract Capital And To Attract Technology To Develop Their Oil Fields, Their Oil And Gas Fields, Many Of Which Suffer From Lack Of Access To The Very Best Technologies. And It's Also Important, And This Has Been The Us Government's View To Have Diversification Of Supply, Diversification Of Supply Roots And, Of Course, Diversification In Terms Of Alternative Energy.
Technology
Russia
Government
Education Is Of No Value And Talent Is Worthless - Unless You Have An Unwavering Aim. Never Find Yourself Without A Compass.
Basketball
Finding Yourself
Talent
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.
Government
Iraq
Decision
Working Very Closely With The Department Of Homeland Security To Match Up What Is Available With What Is Needed.
Homeland Security
Needed
Department
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