I spent my life studying communism and Soviet systems.

The stunning part was that one time Neil McElroy the Secretary of Defense who was the father of one of our classmates spoke and basically at commencement, he told us all that our job after graduation was to get married and have interesting sons...and we all found that hard to believe.

One of the things I write about a bit in my Madam Secretary memoir is on Rwanda, where I was an instructed ambassador at the U.N., and my instructions were to not vote for increased forces there, and I didn't like my instructions. So I got up and called Washington and said, "Change my instructions," and they didn't.

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

You have to learn to interrupt because you aren't going to get called on.

History is written backwards but lived forwards.

I felt that America's duty was not to try to do everything itself, but to foster a sense of commitment that would bring out the best in every country.