Top 70 Madeleine Albright Quotes

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

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

I spent my life studying communism and Soviet systems.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

When Hillary was First Lady, we went to the Beijing Women’s Conference. She courageously stood up and spoke out on behalf of human rights and women’s rights, inspiring millions to fight for a better future.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Saddam’s goal is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed.

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

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.

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.

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

I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.

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.

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.

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

I can’t go out with a Republican.

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

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

NATO has been a thread throughout my life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

When Hillary served as Secretary of State, I watched her partner with President Obama to restore our country’s reputation around the world.

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.

Hate, emotionalism, and frustration are not policies.

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 am such a political person.

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 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.