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

-Condoleezza Rice

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The Sooner You Learn

Condoleezza Rice

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I 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'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.

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

Mass Destruction

I Believe In Having A Private Life.

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.

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.

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

Finding Yourself

Power Is Nothing Unless You Can Turn It Into Influence.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Making A Difference

I'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

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.

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

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

Describe Myself

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

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've Never Really Been A Workaholic.

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

I 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

I'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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Differences Can Be Strength Rather Than A Handicap.

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.

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

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.

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

You Know, 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.

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

Out Of Struggle Very Often Comes Victory.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Differences Can Be A Strength.

African American

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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 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'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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I 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.

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

I'm A Terrible Long-term Planner.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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'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."

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 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.

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.

Punish France, Ignore Germany, And Forgive Russia.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

I Don't Think 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.

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

Homeland Security

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

Straightforward

I 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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Charles Kendall Adams

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