Quotes from Madeleine Albright

True leadership requires the capacity to shape public opinion, not merely reflect it.

With the possible exception of ancient Rome, no society has ever auditioned for the role of world policeman. Certainly the United States—at least through the end of the twentieth century—never desired that part. As for the UN, it has shown the ability to play world night watchman. It can monitor and raise the alarm, but it cannot guarantee that the alarm, once sounded, will be answered.

in any group, someone has to lead, and it might as well be a woman - provided she has done the work necessary to prepare.

I had learned from my own experience not to be surprised when a man lies about sex.

There is a special place in hell for women who do not help each other.

If diplomacy is the art of persuading others to act as we would wish, effective foreign policy requires that we comprehend why others act as they do

Marx's dream of a workers' paradise had degenerated into an Orwellian nightmare; conformity was the highest good, informants kept watch on every block, whole countries lived behind barbed wire, and governments insisted that down was up and black was white.

The religious scholars I have consulted are passionate about the need for political leaders to educate themselves in the varieties of faith and to see religion more as a potential means for reconciliation than as a source of conflict.

The purpose of foreign policy is to influence the policies and actions of other nations in a way that serves your interests and values. The tools available include everything from kind words to cruise missiles. Mixing them properly and with sufficient patience is the art of diplomacy.

Historie se žije dopÃ…â"¢edu, ale píÅ¡e dozadu.

I am often asked whether I am an optimist or a pessimist. My reply is, "I am an optimist who worries a lot." I continue to believe that the United States banked enough international goodwill in the interval between George Washington and Barack Obama to recover from the present embarrassment - but I am not sure how extensive or lasting the harm will be, hence the worries.

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

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.

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.