Top 100 Madeleine Albright Quotes
#2. Women can't do everything at the same time, we need to understand milestones in our lives comes in segments.
Madeleine Albright
#3. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#5. Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.
Madeleine Albright
#6. There is plenty of room in the world for mediocre men but there is no room for mediocre women.
Madeleine Albright
#7. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#8. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#10. After the Cold War, to rally the American people to understand that we had to be a part of solutions. It's one thing to say that we have to run everything, it's another to say we don't want anything to do with it.
Madeleine Albright
#11. We live in an image society. Speeches are not what anybody cares about; what they care about is the picture.
Madeleine Albright
#12. The difference between humans and other mammals is that we know how to accessorize.
Madeleine Albright
#13. What distinguishes Americans from many people in the world is our kind of endemic optimism.
Madeleine Albright
#14. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#15. If you look at U.S. history through religious history, there is very much a motif that shows the importance religion has played in the U.S. We're a very religious country and it affects the way we look at various political issues.
Madeleine Albright
#16. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#17. The greatest thrill in my life was to represent the United States of America.
Madeleine Albright
#18. Don't make me into this airy-fairy, moralist, idealist because I'm not.
Madeleine Albright
#19. Go for it, never back down, and don't give in, because there's no greater satisfaction in life than using your gifts to help others and to contribute to your community and country.
Madeleine Albright
#20. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#21. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#22. It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.
Madeleine Albright
#23. It is an unfortunate fact that in many parts of the world women are considered property. An awful lot of injustice is obviously due to that; not just women's status in the home, but all kinds of laws that are even more discriminating.
Madeleine Albright
#24. I don't actually believe in a clash of civilizations. I believe in a clash of the civilized and the noncivilized.
Madeleine Albright
#25. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#26. I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below.
Madeleine Albright
#27. I bought ... the pins with my three daughters in mind; the ships are beautiful, graceful, and moving along at full sail, having long since left home port.
Madeleine Albright
#28. Only in America could a refugee girl from Central Europe become secretary of state.
Madeleine Albright
#29. For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world - but it doesn't happen twice.
Madeleine Albright
#30. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#31. It's one thing to be religious, but it's another thing to make religion your policy.
Madeleine Albright
#32. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#35. I think there has to be the sense that once you have climbed the ladder of success, that you don't push it away from the building.
Madeleine Albright
#36. Women have to be active listeners and interrupters - but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.
Madeleine Albright
#37. While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.
Madeleine Albright
#38. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#39. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#40. So people are talking about revolution. What a revolution it would be to have a woman president.
Madeleine Albright
#41. I was a little girl in World War II and I'm used to being freed by Americans.
Madeleine Albright
#42. When Hillary served in the Senate, I saw her work day and night as a member of the Armed Services Committee - working with Republicans and Democrats to keep our military strong and protect our troops and their families.
Madeleine Albright
#43. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#44. Hussein has chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies.
Madeleine Albright
#45. To be safe at the expense of the liberty of other people is a difficult equation.
Madeleine Albright
#46. The purpose of foreign policy is to persuade others to do what we want or, better yet, to want what we want.
Madeleine Albright
#47. The best book, like the best speech, will do it all - make us laugh, think, cry and cheer - preferably in that order.
Madeleine Albright
#48. When combined with information and communication technologies, microcredit can unleash new opportunities for the world's poorest entrepreneurs and thereby revitalize the village economies they serve.
Madeleine Albright
#49. The process of education in the oldest profession in the world is like any other educational process, in that it requires time andeffort and patience; it can only be acquired by taking one step at a time, though the steps become accelerated after the first few.
Madeleine Albright
#50. Take it from someone who fled the Iron Curtain: I know what happens when you give the Russians a green light.
Madeleine Albright
#51. What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about, if we can't use it?
Madeleine Albright
#52. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#53. When Hillary served as Secretary of State, I watched her partner with President Obama to restore our country's reputation around the world.
Madeleine Albright
#54. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#55. I got married, I really waited a long time - three days after I graduated.
Madeleine Albright
#57. As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.
Madeleine Albright
#58. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#59. I was not at all apprehensive about ... disease ... [it] had no terrors for me. The thing I most feared in the world was hunger. That was something of which I had personal knowledge.
Madeleine Albright
#60. Today, I say that no nation in the world need be left out of the global system we are constructing.
Madeleine Albright
#61. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#62. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#63. The reason I made women's issues central to American foreign policy, was not because I was a feminist, but because we know that societies are more stable if women are politically and economically empowered.
Madeleine Albright
#65. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#66. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#68. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#69. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#70. Whatever the job you are asked to do at whatever level, do a good job because your reputation is your resume.
Madeleine Albright
#72. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#73. Unfortunately for the Iraqi people, instead of meeting these requirements, for six years, Saddam Hussein has lied, delayed, obstructed and tried to deceive
Madeleine Albright
#74. I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.
Madeleine Albright
#75. Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.
Madeleine Albright
#76. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#77. I don't think people should think of women's issues as auxiliary issues - they are central.
Madeleine Albright
#78. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#79. We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction.
Madeleine Albright
#80. 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'.
Madeleine Albright
#81. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#82. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#83. Our collective experience has shown that when women have the power to make their own choices, good things happen.
Madeleine Albright
#84. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#85. There are a lot of similar aspects in all the religions. The question is which side of it you hold up.
Madeleine Albright
#86. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#87. People didn't think that a woman could be the Secretary of State, when my name was out there ... but then the Arab Ambassadors at the UN said 'We have no problem dealing with Ambassador Albright, and we would have no problem dealing with Secretary Albright.'
Madeleine Albright
#88. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#90. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#93. I loved being Secretary of State, that's probably evident to everyone who watched me.
Madeleine Albright
#94. As strong as the United States is, we can't deal with terrorism alone.
Madeleine Albright
#95. There are an awful lot of things going on that need understanding and explanation, but - to put it mildly - the world is a mess.
Madeleine Albright
#96. Bill Clinton valued my opinion and always made sure that my views were heard, and people knew that he wanted me to talk.
Madeleine Albright
#97. 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.
Madeleine Albright
#98. I have very set and consistent principles, but I am flexible on tactics. I like to get the job done.
Madeleine Albright
#99. No one has done what Saddam Hussein has done, or is thinking of doing. He is producing weapons of mass destruction, and he is qualitatively and quantitatively different from other dictators.
Madeleine Albright
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
