Madeleine Albright Quotes

I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below.

No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground.

I can't see democracy occurring by force - after an Iraqi war, because of the fallout from that.

Women are more than 50% of almost every country in the world. Countries rob themselves of the resources of women if they keep them as property. It isn't that women can't find work. It's just that women don't get paid for their work and are not recognized properly. It's something that has to be on the international agenda all the time.

There are a lot of similar aspects in all the religions. The question is which side of it you hold up.

I think we all are people that are the product of our backgrounds. It's wrong to think that you're not.

It's one thing to be religious, but it's another thing to make religion your policy.

Women have to work exceptionally hard.

Real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting to doing.

Often if you don't speak up, whatever you thought was stupid to say some man would say and then everyone would say 'as he said'.

The greatest thrill in my life was to represent the United States of America.

The world would be entirely different if it were run by women. I think it is true that we are more seeking consensus and don't have such big egos and have a variety of different ways of trying to get along. But anybody who says that the world would be better has forgotten high school. It depends on who the women are.

I get up every morning and I'm grateful for everything that has happened. I go through my list about being grateful for my children and grandchildren, and for the really remarkable life that I have been able to have.

We must be authors of the history of our age.

Even before I went to the UN, I often would want to say something in a meeting - only woman at the table - and I'd think, 'OK well, I don't think I'll say that. It may sound stupid.' And then some man says it, and everybody thinks it's completely brilliant, and you are so mad at yourself for not saying something.

Our predecessors understood that the ties that bind America are far stronger than disagreements over any particular policy and far more durable and profound than any party affiliation.

My deepest regret from my years in public service is the failure of the United States and the international community to act sooner to halt these crimes.

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.

Women can't do everything at the same time, we need to understand milestones in our lives comes in segments.

Nobody's ever said that pins are a tool of diplomacy.

If intelligence were a television set, it would be an early black-and-white model with poor reception, so that much of the picture was gray and the figures on the screen were snowy and indistinct. You could fiddle with the knobs all you wanted, but unless you were careful, what you would see often depended more on what you expected or hoped to see than on what was really there.

The capability of negotiating... is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

You think that the heads of state only have serious conversations, but they actually often begin really with the weather or, 'I really like your tie.'

jewels have played a colorful part in the evolution of world affairs. Because precious stones tend to inspire both admiration and greed, leaders have found convenient excuses for seeking them and have used them to impress crowds, reward friends, deprive foes, forge alliances, and justify war. Jewels may find their highest expression in the decorative arts, but they have also earned a place in the art of the possible.

The cover-up, more than the initial wrongdoing, is what is most likely to bring you down.

For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world - but it doesn't happen twice.

I do not believe that things happen accidentally; I believe you earn them.

I am not a fatalist. I have just been reading War and Peace and Tolstoy is such a fatalist. I think people can make a difference... I am an optimist who worries a lot.

There is a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the family table. Such migrants my violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that's all they do they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected.

I enjoy wearing pins, and nobody tells me to do it.

No matter how hard we might wish, we will not be able to transform China's behavior overnight.

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.