Quotes from Madeleine Albright

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

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.

I can't see democracy occurring by force - after an Iraqi war, because of the fallout from that.

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

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

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.

There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.

I'm not a person who thinks the world would be entirely different if it was run by women. If you think that, you've forgotten what high school was like.

Our collective experience has shown that when women have the power to make their own choices, good things happen.

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 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 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

I don't think people should think of women's issues as auxiliary issues - they are central.

I do consider myself a feminist. I know the word has weird implications for people now, but I do think that its important to have women involved, whether its business or public service or...anything.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.