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.
Condoleezza RiceAfter all, when the world looks to America, they look to us because we are the most successful political and economic experiment in human history.
Condoleezza RiceIn any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.
Condoleezza RiceIt 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.
Condoleezza Rice