Madeleine Albright Quotations

I really think that there was a great advantage in many ways to being a woman. I think we are a lot better at personal relationships, and then have the capability obviously of telling it like it is when it's necessary.

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.

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

I think that we all know what evil is. We have a sense of what's evil, and certainly killing innocent people is evil. We're less sure about what is good. There's sort of good, good enough, could be better - but absolute good is a little harder to define.

Life is grim, and we don't have to be grim all the time.

Jewelry and pins have been worn throughout history as symbols of power, sending messages. Interestingly enough, it was mostly men who wore the jewelry in various times, and obviously crowns were part of signals that were being sent throughout history by people of rank.

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

One of the issues I kept saying to my students is you have to learn to interrupt. When you raise your hand at a meeting, by the time they get to you, the point is not germane. So the bottom line is active listening. If you are going to interrupt, you look for opportunities. You have to know what you're talking about.

Really, I have to laugh because there was a whole set of stories that made me sound like the Dragon Lady, you know, 'tough this and tough that.' Then there is this business about 'gooey.' The bottom line is I am a pragmatic idealist.

Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.

I've never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.

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 am a beneficiary of the American people's generosity, and I hope we can have comprehensive immigration legislation that allows this country to continue to be enriched by those who were not born here.

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

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it's not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It's more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

I do believe that in order to be a successful negotiator that as a diplomat, you have to be able to put yourself into the other person's shoes. Unless you can understand what is motivating them, you are never going to be able to figure out how to solve a particular problem.

I think women are really good at making friends and not good at networking. Men are good at networking and not necessarily making friends. That's a gross generalization, but I think it holds in many ways.

And so I have studied, I have to tell you, revolutions and uprisings for a long time. They are all slightly different, but what they all look for is some kind of a mechanism to go from an authoritarian system to an open, democratic system.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters - but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

I have to tell you, my seven-year-old granddaughter said to my daughter, her mother, 'So what's the big deal about Grandma Maddy having been Secretary of State? Only girls are Secretaries of State.' Most of her lifetime, it's true. But at the time it really was a big deal.

We will not be intimidated or pushed off the world stage by people who do not like what we stand for, and that is, freedom, democracy and the fight against disease, poverty and terrorism.

If you look at my life, generally, I've been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

The magic of America is that we're a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.

I think that a president needs to have a variety of views presented. But also, there has to be a team effort, because otherwise, I think it creates a dissonance and difficulty.

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

But I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven't exactly been non-aggressive - including me.

I saw what happened when a dictator was allowed to take over a piece of a country and the country went down the tubes. And I saw the opposite during the war when America joined the fight.

Our strategic dialogue with China can both protect American interests and uphold our principles, provided we are honest about our differences on human rights and other issues and provided we use a mix of targeted incentives and sanctions to narrow these differences.

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women's issues to the center of our foreign policy.

This is pure speculation, but for a period of time, a lot of getting into a party was through fundraising and volunteer work, and Republican women had more time to do that than democratic women, who were out there getting jobs.

I think that we had a different view of what the 21st century could be like, with much more of a sense, from our perspective, of trying to have an interdependent world: looking at solving regional conflicts, having strength in alliances, operating within some kind of a sense that we were part of the international community and not outside of it.

Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

I hope I'm wrong, but I am afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy - worse than Vietnam, not in the number who died, but in terms of its unintended consequences and its reverberation throughout the region.

The difference between humans and other mammals is that we know how to accessorize.

So people are talking about revolution. What a revolution it would be to have a woman president.

We live in an image society. Speeches are not what anybody cares about; what they care about is the picture.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn't mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you've forgotten high school.

To be safe at the expense of the liberty of other people is a difficult equation.

People are finding it harder and harder to relate to foreign policy.

Hillary Clinton will always be there for you. And just remember - there's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other.

The best book, like the best speech, will do it all - make us laugh, think, cry and cheer - preferably in that order.

I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men's clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You're trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren't very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

And so I think that the idea of America working with other countries to solve problems is good for us, and it is part of digging us out of the 'my way or the highway' approach that was evident in the previous eight years.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

And frankly, I don't understand - I mean, I'm obviously a card-carrying Democrat - but I can't understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney, except maybe Mrs. Romney.

I know that war is very cruel and that life is harder when you aren't able to live in the place you called home.

I've never seen America as an imperialist or colonialist or meddling country.

Don't make me into this airy-fairy, moralist, idealist because I'm not.

Because of my parents' love of democracy, we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia - first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven't exactly been non-aggressive - including me.

I was in Europe and it was at this stage that I fell in love with Americans in uniform. And I continue to have that love affair.

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

What a blast it is to be here with Michael Moore.

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.'

If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

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

As strong as the United States is, we can't deal with terrorism alone.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

I was a little girl in World War II and I'm used to being freed by Americans.

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

I spent my life studying communism and Soviet systems.

NATO has been a thread throughout my life.

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

For me, America is really, truly the indispensable nation.

I can't imagine what it is like to be raised in a society where their only statues that exist are to you and your father.

I loved being Secretary of State, that's probably evident to everyone who watched me.

I loved what I did. I could've been secretary of state for ever.

I wasn't a normal professor. I had worked in government. I hadn't written nine zillion books. I was a hands-on professor.

My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.

To understand Europe, you have to be a genius - or French.

I have been in meetings where a head of state will say, 'I like your tie,' to a man... or, 'I like your country because the weather's good,' or whatever. So for me, the pins in some ways were openers.

One of the things that was really an issue was I did not want to just be a woman secretary of state. I wanted to be a secretary of a state who was a woman, but not just chosen for that particular reason.

I have always seen the United States as a force of good. And I have learned that there is the idealistic part about what we can do at the U.N. and there is a doable part. And I have learned what is more doable.

There's Madeleine, and then there's 'Madeleine Albright'. And I sometimes kind of think, who is this person? Once you become 'Madeleine Albright' it doesn't go away.

I believe that my parents did wonderful things for us.

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

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

The only thing I have to go by is what my mother and father told me, how I was brought up.

For me, being raised in a free America made all the difference.

Hussein has chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies.

I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.

My mind-set is Munich. Most of my generation's is Vietnam.

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

I did go to Wellesley, a women's college. And I am of a kind of strange generation which is transitional in terms of women who wanted to go out and get jobs.

I didn't want to set up a women's studies program. I thought women should learn to operate in a coeducational atmosphere, because, especially in national security and international affairs, it's male-dominated.

It's important that we invest in America - literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can't let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.

So there really was a whole series of things that took the women of my generation a little bit of time to push forward.

I got married, I really waited a long time - three days after I graduated.

The bottom line is, the more we have a cadre of women moving up the scale, and it doesn't seem threatening, and people realize that women actually work much harder than men, and realize that they need more women in these jobs, I think that goes away.

I don't actually believe in a clash of civilizations. I believe in a clash of the civilized and the noncivilized.

What distinguishes Americans from many people in the world is our kind of endemic optimism.

The other thing that happened was that we have a tendency to project our own weaknesses onto another woman. I don't think men do that particularly.

I have certain issues. I support women candidates, but I cannot support a woman that I don't believe in. I would prefer to vote for a man who believes in choice than a woman who is pro-life. We have to be able to make distinctions and not look as though we are not feminist enough if we don't support every woman. We need to have that kind of a choice.

I really do think about the fact that every day counts. I believe that every individual counts, and so I believe that every day counts and I try not to waste it.

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.

US is a very religious country. Separation of church and state is part of our credo, but that it is hard to understand since our money says "In God we trust" and every President says "God bless America".

When somebody is flying airplanes into buildings and killing innocent people in the name of God, it makes you question why do they have that interpretation and somebody else has another interpretation, and how many people of Muslim faith would agree with that, and what are the different aspects of different people's religions that is so divisive, rather than being unifying?