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

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...

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.

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

I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.

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...

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

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.

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...

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.

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

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....

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...

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

What people have the capacity to choose, they have the ability to change.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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

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.

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

Iraq is a long way from the U.S., but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against...

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

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.

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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

When trouble arise among faraway people, we remain tempted to hide behind the principle of national sovereignty, to “mind our own business” when it is convenient, and to think of democracy as a suit to...

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...

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...

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.

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

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

I am such a political person.

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...

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

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

Disgusting Serbs, get out!

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

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...