Latest Madeleine Albright Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• You [young people] all are just much more internationally-minded and traveled and knowledgeable in languages than any other previous generation. So many of you are already doing a lot of international relations, I think. I so believe in student networks, and people that either study abroad or come to the United States to study, and the relationships that you all develop. You learn a lot from each other, but you all will see each other again in jobs along the way. And I think that makes a big difference. I so believe in what students can do.

  Madeleine Albright

  Jobs, Believe, Thinking

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• I teach at Georgetown, and I see that the students have so many different interests. The main thing is to match your passion with your knowledge, because you can't just be passionate without knowing the facts, and facts are really boring without passion.

  Madeleine Albright

  Passion, Knowing, Facts

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• Foreign policy is now a huge field. It isn't just people who are studying political science. There are so many aspects to it in terms of understanding hard science for people who are studying climate change, or people who are interested in health policy or food security, or people who care about education.

  Madeleine Albright

  People, Political, Understanding

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• Obviously Iran is a very large problem. It's hard to decide what the number one issue [is], but that is a very threatening problem.

  Madeleine Albright

  Iran, Numbers, Issues

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• I think the hardest part [is] the priorities. There are an awful lot of things to do [being Secretary of State].

  Madeleine Albright

  Thinking, Priorities, Awful

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• [John Kerry] actually stole my line because when I became Secretary of State, I said, 'I hope my heels will fill Warren Christopher's shoes.' So he reversed that.

  Madeleine Albright

  Shoes, Lines, States

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• John Kerry knows more about more subjects than an awful lot of people. But I think it's a very hard job [Secretary of State].

  Madeleine Albright

  Jobs, Thinking, People

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• One of the things I write about a bit in my Madam Secretary memoir is on Rwanda, where I was an instructed ambassador at the U.N., and my instructions were to not vote for increased forces there, and I didn't like my instructions. So I got up and called Washington and said, "Change my instructions," and they didn't.

  Madeleine Albright

  Writing, Ambassadors, Vote

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• In terms intellectually, [what] shaped my life was the whole Munich thing [the Munich Agreement] that I knew about all my life, in terms of how large powers make decisions that affect small countries, and the unintended consequences of that. The other part is I knew about the Holocaust. l just didn't know that it applied to my family. But that did affect the way I thought about what I was seeing as ethnic cleansing in the Balkans; there's no question about that.

  Madeleine Albright

  Country, Agreement, Holocaust

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• I think we all are people that are the product of our backgrounds. It's wrong to think that you're not.

  Madeleine Albright

  Thinking, People, Backgrounds

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• As a child, I really did see buildings bombed, and what makes me different from an American that's the same age as I am is that I can understand what happens when there is fighting in a way that they couldn't.

  Madeleine Albright

  Children, Fighting, Age

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

• I think the jobs [at the top] are unbelievably difficult, and there is nothing easier than second-guessing people.

  Madeleine Albright

  Jobs, Thinking, People

  "Online Extra: Madeleine Albright on Democracy and Force". Transcript of the former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, www.bloomberg.com. December 23, 2002.

• I consider it my patriotic duty as an ordinary citizen - not as Secretary of State - to ask questions. I think we have to ask ourselves the tough questions.

  Madeleine Albright

  Patriotic, Thinking, Tough Questions

  Source: www.bloomberg.com

• We don't understand enough about the Islam religion and Muslim world.

  Madeleine Albright

  Islam, World, Enough

  "Online Extra: Madeleine Albright on Democracy and Force". Transcript of the former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, www.bloomberg.com. December 23, 2002.

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

  Madeleine Albright

  War, Democracy, Force

• What you have to be concerned about are the extremists. On the whole, we need to understand the more moderate Muslims before they become more radicalized.

  Madeleine Albright

  Needs, Concerned, Extremist

  "Online Extra: Madeleine Albright on Democracy and Force". Transcript of the former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, www.bloomberg.com. December 23, 2002.

• I think that the Middle East is the largest piece of unfinished business that we all have. I happen to believe in the democratization process.

  Madeleine Albright

  Believe, Thinking, Unfinished Business

  "Online Extra: Madeleine Albright on Democracy and Force". Transcript of the former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, www.bloomberg.com. December 23, 2002.

• Women have to work exceptionally hard.

  Madeleine Albright

  Hard

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.

• You have to learn to interrupt because you aren't going to get called on.

  Madeleine Albright

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.

• 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

  Stupid, Men, Speak

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.

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

  Madeleine Albright

  Men, World, Rooms

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.

• You can't just think that you will get a job for no good reason... And I think that the other part is you have to work your way up, you know I did a lot of Xeroxing and getting coffee...I always did what I was asked to do. I delivered. People knew that I would get things done and get them done well. And that is a big part of our resumes, are based on being responsible and being willing to do what needed to be done.

  Madeleine Albright

  Jobs, Coffee, Thinking

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.

• As far as barriers once I joined the government I was very lucky because I had all of my credentials together, I was Doctor Albright... So when somebody wanted the one woman I made sure that they knew I was dependable and qualified.

  Madeleine Albright

  Doctors, Government, Together

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.

• I got married three days after graduation, and the first thing I did what I was expected to do which was to work on a small newspaper. So we were in Chicago where my husband worked for the Chicago Sun-Times and we were having dinner with his editor and he said 'So what are you 'gonna do honey?' and I said 'I'm going to work on a newspaper', and he said 'I don't think so", because Newspaper Guild regulations said that I couldn't work on the same newspaper as my husband.

  Madeleine Albright

  Husband, Thinking, Editors

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.

• Even though there were three newspapers in Chicago at the time, he said 'you wouldn't want to compete with your husband," and so instead of doing what I might do now in that situation, I basically saluted and found other things to do.

  Madeleine Albright

  Husband, Might, Chicago

  Interview with Maeve Allsup, www.amwordmag.com. October 20, 2015.