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

-Condoleezza Rice

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We've Organized Human Potential

Condoleezza Rice

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

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The 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.

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

I 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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I'm Not Personally Fearful, But I Look Out, And There Are A Number Of Things That Concern Me, And I'm Hopeful That We Can Overcome Them.

I 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.

Every Life Is Capable Of Greatness.

There Are Many Other Arrows In Our Diplomatic Quiver.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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 Really Believe That You Can. Not Only Do I Think It Is A Part Of Public Service To Help Young People Find Their Way, Just As Professors Had Helped Me Find Mine, But I've Been Very Involved In K-12 Education Issues. I Started A Program Back In 1992 Called The Center For A New Generation, An Afterschool Enrichment Program.

I 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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

I've Never Really Been A Workaholic.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Democratic Ideals

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

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

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

Finding Yourself

I Think There's Sometimes Too Much Attention To A Few People Who Do Hold Extreme Views. Most Americans Go About Their Lives Living In Communities That Are Increasingly Multiethnic, Increasingly Multi-religious. And They Are Welcoming Of People Who Are Not Like Themselves. Now, I Don't Have Rose-colored Glasses About America, Because I Grew Up In The Segregated South. But I Watch It Every Day. I Think That Americans Are Very Tolerant People.

Power Is Nothing Unless You Can Turn It Into Influence.

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.

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.

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

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

Describe Myself

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

Mass Destruction

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.

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

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

Prove Them Wrong

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.

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.

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

I Play A Lot Chamber Music.as For Something That's Hard For Me To Play, Before I Leave This Earth I'm Hoping To Play Brahms' Second Piano Concerto.

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

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 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.

Richard Clarke Had Plenty Of Opportunities To Tell Us, In The Administration, That He Thought The War On Terrorism Was Moving In The Wrong Direction And He Chose Not To.

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

I'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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Punish France, Ignore Germany, And Forgive Russia.

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

As Americans We Like To Believe That We're Loved In International Politics Or That People Like What We're Doing. But We Also Recognize That We Have An Extraordinary Responsibility To Do What We Think Is Right, And That Sometimes What We Do Is Not Very Popular.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I'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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

I 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Out Of Struggle Very Often Comes Victory.

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

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

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.

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.

I Do Think People Have Suggested That It Would Be A Good Thing If The Reporting Were Accurate On Al-jazeera And If It Were Not Slanted In Ways That Appear To Be At Times Just Purely Inaccurate.

I'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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

When I Went Off To College, I Was Expecting To Be A Concert Musician. In Music School I Heard All Of These Kids Who Were Just Unbelievable. And I Understand That You Can Be Very, Very Good, But There's Something That Separates Very, Very Good From Great, And I Knew That I Wasn't Great.

I'm A Terrible Long-term Planner.

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.

I Think All Of Us Have Really Got To Redouble Our Efforts, First Of All, To Pay Attention To The K-12 Crisis. The Sad Fact Is That I Can Look At Your Zip Code And Tell Whether You're Going To Get A Good Education. That's Not Fair. And Secondly, I Hope That All Of Us Who Were Fortunate Enough To Have Benefited Will Put Our Time, Our Resources And Our Efforts Into Making Sure That Kids, Particularly Kids Without Means, Have A Way To Achieve.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Homeland Security

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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