Madeleine Albright Quotes

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

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

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.

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

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.

History is written backwards but lived forwards.

I have very set and consistent principles, but I am flexible on tactics. I like to get the job done.

I was struck by the joy of those pilots in committing coldblooded murder . . . Frankly, this is not cojones. This is cowardice.

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

China is in its own category - too big to ignore, too repressive to embrace, difficult to influence, and very, very proud.

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

Mahmoud Abbas is a puppet.

The U.N. bureaucracy has grown to elephantine proportions. Now that the Cold War is over, we are asking that elephant to do gymnastics.

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

Only in America could a refugee girl from Central Europe become secretary of state.

The system he (President Hosni Mubarak) is recommending would make it virtually impossible for truly independent parties to participate. Sham democracy should be exposed for what it truly is.

We have to understand where we have strategic relationships that require us to take a different approach. I guess the easiest way to describe it is: different strokes for different folks.

In diplomacy, clear-cut wins and losses are rare.

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

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

I am by nature a worried optimist.

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

Libraries are fun, educational, and the biggest bargain on the face of the earth.

We must help women in every society to have their voices heard.

Armageddon is not a foreign policy.

I am the only high-ranking U.S. official to ever meet with Kim Jong-il, and we are the same height and both wear high heels.

Democracy cannot be built on revenge and you will not have the support of the world if you are intolerant and take the law into your own hands.

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

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.

I think I've revived the costume-jewelry industry.

Our life comes in segments, and we have to understand that we can have it all if we're not trying to do it all at once.

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.'

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 were always jokes about Hillary Clinton channeling Eleanor Roosevelt, but Eleanor Roosevelt was really instrumental at the UN, and would want to meet with various other delegates.

Women have to work exceptionally hard.

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.

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

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

There is plenty of room in the world for mediocre men but there is no room for mediocre women.

Today, I say that no nation in the world need be left out of the global system we are constructing.

The main thing is to remain oneself, under any circumstances; that was and is our common purpose.

Leaders are made by the situations they are involved in. I think that some rise to the occasion and some do not.

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

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

[John Kerry] actually stole my line because when I became Secretary of State, I said, 'I hope my heels will fill Warren Christopher's shoes.' So he reversed that.

I think the hardest part [is] the priorities. There are an awful lot of things to do [being Secretary of State].

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

I went to college somewhere between the invention of the iPad and the discovery of fire... but I had gone to a women's college.

Well we're good friends so I'm a little prejudice, but I think [Hillary Clinton] is incredibly qualified, and better prepared to be president than almost anyone who's ever run frankly.

Obviously Iran is a very large problem. It's hard to decide what the number one issue [is], but that is a very threatening problem.