Condoleezza Quotes & Sayings

I wish that after the war against Saddam Hussein we had been more effective at rebuilding Iraq quickly. I think had we done it from the provinces, in, rather than from Baghdad, out, we might have been more successful. — Condoleezza Rice

First, I wanted to answer the question I'm most frequently asked: "How did you become who you are?" Well, you had to know John and Angelena Rice. — Condoleezza Rice

In 1991, only two years into the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice suddenly left her powerful job as the top Russia expert on the National Security Council and went back to California - to get a life. — Elaine Sciolino

I was born in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. I didn't have a white classmate till we moved to Denver. — Condoleezza Rice

America is a remarkable place in that social attitudes change almost imperceptibly, and then you wake up the next day and they've changed. But they've been changing all the time. — Condoleezza Rice

I've found my place in life, that I'm passionate about, my talents and my passion have merged, and I'm trying to do the best that I can. — Condoleezza Rice

One thing that education can do is it can provide us with an opportunity to understand one another better, and so while I've spent a lot of my time in the world of politics, I've always felt that it is really not politics that will solve this for us. — Condoleezza Rice

In light of 50 years of bondage of Eastern Europe, [invading the Soviet Union in 1948 to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons] was probably a reasonable thing to do. — Condoleezza Rice

We're in the middle of the transformation of a society that has handled its politics through repression to a society that will handle its politics through democratic institutions. — Condoleezza Rice

I find that the great majority of public servants across the entire political spectrum come because they believe in the United States and they want to change the world. — Condoleezza Rice

I have enormous respect for people who do run for office. — Condoleezza Rice

I believe our Presidents work hard and it's the loneliest job in the world. — Condoleezza Rice

I'm a committed Republican. I believe very strongly in individual liberty. I tend not to think much in terms of group politics. I really am a kind of small government person and I'm most certainly a fiscal conservative and strong on national defense. — Condoleezza Rice

You can never ask others to do something you would not do. That is integrity. — Condoleezza Rice

I would even say that my parents, and their friends in our community, thought of education as a kind of armor against racism. — Condoleezza Rice

President Bush says he is looking forward to the testimony of Condoleezza Rice. Yes, he is very excited about Condoleezza Rice's testimony before Congress. Well, it makes perfect sense - he wants to know what was going on, too. — David Letterman

We have had some bad incidents and there continue to be allegations of others which will be investigated; but overwhelmingly American forces there, putting their lives on the line every day, protecting Iraqis, helping to liberate them, that is appreciated by the Iraqi people and by the Prime Minister. — Condoleezza Rice

To see an African-American elected president means that this country is really finally coming full circle from the birth defect of slavery. — Condoleezza Rice

I think golf can be one of those places where we act and we hope that people act as we would like them to act all the time. — Condoleezza Rice

I have no doubt that as the Iraqi security forces get better, and they are getting better and they are holding territory and they are doing these things with minimal help, that we are going to be able to bring down the levels of our forces. And I have no doubt that that's going to happen in a reasonable time frame. — Condoleezza Rice

We need to move beyond the idea that girls can be leaders and create the expectation that they should be leaders. — Condoleezza Rice

Who created the sectarian attitude in Iraq? The occupation, ... We never heard of this before in our history. But it's good that Condoleezza Rice realizes sectarianism is not good for Iraq. All we want from them is fair and clean elections next month. — Saleh Al-Mutlaq

I stick to playing Brahms, but I love listening to Led Zeppelin, and I've also been a big fan of Earth Wind and Fire since the Seventies and of The Gap Band since the Eighties. — Condoleezza Rice

It's bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if a plan fails when you're trying to make a plan work. — Condoleezza Rice

The pursuit by the Iranian regime of nuclear weapons represents a direct threat to the entire international community, including to the United States and to the Persian Gulf region. — Condoleezza Rice

I wish someone had put a golf club in my hands, not skates on my feet. It is a really great game for business. It's a great game for making connections. — Condoleezza Rice

I remember classes in college where the professor was espousing certain theories about how blacks were inherently less intelligent. But I learned a long time ago to give people the benefit of the doubt, not to assume that somebody was reacting to you because of race. — Condoleezza Rice

I think it's very humble to believe that there is no man, woman or child who should live in tyranny. That people who say, well, maybe Arabs just aren't ready for democracy or maybe Africans just are going to have corrupt governments, that seems to me arrogant. — Condoleezza Rice

For the United States, supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest. — Condoleezza Rice

I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person, and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough. — Condoleezza Rice

We're not going to negotiate about the terms of terrorism. You don't negotiate about terrorism. It's is wrong to engage in terrorism, and there isn't anything to negotiate. — Condoleezza Rice

We will continue to work together in our common fight against terror. — Condoleezza Rice

People have the right to protest - that's what democracy is all about. I have no problem with people exercising their democratic rights. — Condoleezza Rice

I'm a huge proponent of exchanges, student exchanges, cultural exchanges, university exchanges. We talk a lot about public diplomacy, .. It's extremely important that we get our message out, but it's also the case that we should not have a monologue with other people. It has to be a conversation, and you can't do that without exchanges and openness. — Condoleezza Rice

If you are overdressed, it is a comment on them. If you are under dressed, it is a comment on you. — Condoleezza Rice

I get letters from kids from all over the country. I always try to answer them because there were people I looked up to in my youth and just wanted to be in contact with. It's also important to realize that you find your role models in a lot of different places. I've never believed that your role models have to look like you. You can find them in all sort of colors, shapes and sizes. — Condoleezza Rice

What the United States has done hasn't always been liked or popular. But if you look at some of the most populous places in the world - China, India - the United States is not only respected but, in fact, popular. — Condoleezza Rice

Your friends and your family, if you're close to them, they won't let you get too far from who you were or from who you are. And so I love staying close to people who've always known me. That's probably the best leavening that you could possibly have. — Condoleezza Rice

Well, there are many things, whenever you look back, that you would've done differently. We're all human. We do our best at the time. I really wish that we had passed a comprehensive immigration bill because that would've really helped our country. We came close, but we couldn't. — Condoleezza Rice

Foreign policy simply cannot be judged by today's headlines that chalk up victories and defeats like so many box scores in the sports sections. — Condoleezza Rice

I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile. — Condoleezza Rice

Search for role models you can look up to and people who take an interest in your career. But here's an important warning: you don't have to have mentors who look like you. Had I been waiting for a black, female Soviet specialist mentor, I would still be waiting. Most of my mentors have been old white men, because they were the ones who dominated my field. — Condoleezza Rice

We were spending American blood and treasure to liberate the people of Afghanistan from one of the most brutal regimes on the face of the earth. That we would not use that moment to press for women's rights seems to me unthinkable. — Condoleezza Rice

The leaders of the empire, the imperial mafia-George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, et al ... are as fanatic and as fundamentalist as Osama bin Laden. — William Blum

I talked about the need for American leadership, I talked about the importance of the United States to a more peaceful world, a world that has been quite turbulent in recent years, and needs a strong American anchor. — Condoleezza Rice

I've found that in places where women have not really been afforded full rights yet - for instance, in the Middle East - even very conservative politicians in the region will say, 'You know, my daughter would really like to meet you,' or, 'Would you send a note to my granddaughter?' — Condoleezza Rice

My dad was not someone who you would strike with a billy club and he wouldn't strike back. It just wasn't in him. — Condoleezza Rice

I will never forget the bright September day, standing at my desk in the White House, when my young assistant said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center - and then a second one - and a third, the Pentagon. — Condoleezza Rice

Some governments choose to cooperate with the United States in intelligence, law enforcement, or military matters. The co-operation is a two-way street. We share intelligence that has helped protect European countries from attack, helping save European lives. — Condoleezza Rice

[I]t is a dangerous thing to ask why someone else has been given more. It is humbling - and indeed healthy - to ask why you have been given so much. — Condoleezza Rice

The first Republican I knew was my father and he is still the Republican I most admire. He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I. — Condoleezza Rice

I've been in enough positions to respect people with different views. — Condoleezza Rice

I've speculated about what my life might have been like as a musician, but I'm afraid I came to the conclusion that I probably would've either been teaching piano or maybe gotten to play at Nordstrom's department store. — Condoleezza Rice

If I wrote a book, I had to be willing at least to talk about some of my struggles, whether in my personal life, health crises, or the deaths of my parents, because there can too easily be a perception of me that my life just went from A to Z uninterrupted, without any ups and downs, and that's not a fair representation. — Condoleezza Rice

I hope that all of us who were fortunate enough to have benefited will put our time, our resources and our efforts into making sure that kids, particularly kids without means, have a way to achieve. — Condoleezza Rice

When you're in government, of course, you have protection and you have people who are looking out for your wellbeing, but you can't live in a state of fear. If you do, you're not going to do your job very well and you're going to give yourself high blood pressure, which probably isn't worth it. — Condoleezza Rice

I never much cared for politics. I love policy, and I love international policy in particular. I got to be Secretary of State; it really doesn't get much better than that. I love what I do. I love being a professor. — Condoleezza Rice

It is high time that the international community tell Saddam Hussein and his regime that this is not an issue of negotiation with the U.N. about obligations that they undertook in 1991. — Condoleezza Rice

America cannot do most of what needs to be done alone. You need friends. And we have good friends around the world. We have friends with whom we share values in Europe and Asia - thanks to the forward march of democracy - in Latin America, in Africa, and increasingly in the Middle East. — Condoleezza Rice

I'm a very happy university professor ... the best thing about being a university professor is that you see young people as they're being shaped and molded toward their own future, and you have a chance to be a part of that. — Condoleezza Rice

The most important lesson I think I could impart is don't let anyone determine what your horizons are going to be. You get to determine those yourself. The only limitations are whatever particular talents you happen to have and how hard you're willing to work. And if you let others define who you ought to be, or what you ought to be because they put you in a category, they see your race, they see your gender and they put you in a category. You shouldn't let that happen. — Condoleezza Rice

Well, I didn't feel that I could do justice to this story of my parents and their generation, and all that they did to make it possible for me to be who I am, if I sort of just put it at the beginning of a book about my last eight years in foreign policy. — Condoleezza Rice

I could read music before I could read. — Condoleezza Rice

We can have a new vision, one even greater than the system they gave us after World War II. Everyone can pursue happiness and freedom and peace. — Condoleezza Rice

I've always said as a political scientist that "culture" is what we use when we can't explain things. I think it's more about accessibility. Part of the problem is that this is an expensive game [golf]. I know in a couple of places where there are black members, and they come from pretty much the same socioeconomic level that the white members come from. — Condoleezza Rice

I've never really been a workaholic. I work very hard, but I also enjoy playing. I think it's important to have a balanced and well-rounded life. — Condoleezza Rice

Once a month I play with a chamber music quartet. I play almost no solo music anymore because I so enjoy the interaction. The members of my quartet have become some of my best friends and so I really enjoy it now in ways that I didn't before. — Condoleezza Rice

Piano performances by Condoleezza Rice are better than Hitler's paintings. — Evgeni Kostitsyn

What we're hearing from everyone is that they understand that Saddam Hussein is a threat. They understand that he's been a threat for a long time. — Condoleezza Rice

The true reason of Ms. Rice's attack against Russia is very simple. Condoleezza Rice is a very cruel, offended woman who lacks men's attention. — Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Great leaders never accept the world as it was and always work for the world as it should be — Condoleezza Rice

As I was telling my husb - As I was telling President Bush. — Condoleezza Rice

I think the word of the United States has been as good as gold in its international dealings and its agreements. — Condoleezza Rice

You go to war when there is a security threat, and Saddam Hussein was seen as a threat to our interests and our security. — Condoleezza Rice

In any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development. — Condoleezza Rice

So I think, if September 11 taught us anything, it taught us that we're vulnerable, and vulnerable in ways that we didn't fully understand. — Condoleezza Rice

I know a lot of very stable gay couples. — Condoleezza Rice

The growth of entrepreneurial classes throughout the world is an asset in the promotion of human rights and individual liberty, and it should be understood and used as such. Yet peace is the first and most important condition for continued prosperity and freedom. America's military power must be secure because the United States is the only guarantor of global peace and stability. The current neglect of America's armed forces threatens its ability to maintain peace. — Condoleezza Rice

It's good to have female or minority role models. But the important thing is to have mentors who care about you, and they come in all colors. — Condoleezza Rice

Race is a constant factor in American life. Yet reacting to every incident,real or imagined, is crippling, tiring, and ultimately counterproductive. — Condoleezza Rice

There is not going to be any pass for Palestinian leadership in fighting terror. — Condoleezza Rice

Success is not assured, but America is resolute: this is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for some years to come - and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinians seize this chance. — Condoleezza Rice

What I tell student athletes is first of all, you've made good choices this far in order to be able to be in college and to be an athlete. Keep making good choices. — Condoleezza Rice

It hasn't yet materialized that I went into sports management, but I haven't ruled it out yet, either. I only half-jokingly remarked that I'd love to be the commissioner of the NFL. But as I recently told current Commissioner Roger Goodell, that job looked a lot more appealing when I was struggling with the Russians and the Iranians everyday. — Condoleezza Rice

What we will not wait for is that particular nexus of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction that is extremism, and the technology to come together in a way that is harmful to the United States. — Condoleezza Rice

I believe in having a private life. — Condoleezza Rice

I think that the United States has always been most effective when it is leading both from power and principle. — Condoleezza Rice

Diplomacy, if properly practiced, is not just talking for the sake of talking. — Condoleezza Rice

George W. Bush's approval ratings have plummeted as Americans realize that it's not gay marriage that's destroying the country, but rather the president, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and the rest of the gang in the White House. They're the ones who've taken us to war based on lies and have irreparably damaged the nation's integrity. — Michelangelo Signorile

Iran can and should be a responsible state, not the leading state sponsor of terror. — Condoleezza Rice

You know, I've never believed, in anything, that you had to have role models who looked like you to do something. If I'd been waiting for a black, female, soviet specialist role model, I'd be still waiting. — Condoleezza Rice

American foreign policy had still not recovered from its victory over communism when George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice took over at the White House in 2001. — Russell Baker

I really do fervently believe that every child deserves to have the kind of access to educational opportunities, broadly defined, including music and sports, that I enjoyed. So, I'm trying to do my part, and I believe that all of us with a privileged background who are fortunate enough to have had that kind of access have a responsibility to try to pass it on. — Condoleezza Rice

President Bush has had an outstanding Secretary of State in Colin Powell and there are not many people who could replace him, making Condoleezza Rice an excellent choice. — Michael Crapo

Out of struggle very often comes victory. — Condoleezza Rice

Prejudice and bigotry are brought down ... by the sheer force of determination of individuals to succeed and the refusal of a human being to let prejudice define the parameters of the possible. — Condoleezza Rice

I play classical music almost exclusively. I never mastered jazz or gospel in the way that my mother did. She was a fine improvisational musician. I pretty much have to stick to what's written on the page. — Condoleezza Rice

I'm very proud that we stood for the proposition that no man, woman or child should ever have to live in tyranny. We believed in democracy and promoted it. — Condoleezza Rice

We [The United States] believe the Iranian people want a future of freedom and human rights: the right to vote, to run for office, to express their views without fear and to pursue political causes. We would welcome the progress, prosperity and freedom of the Iranian people. — Condoleezza Rice

Spirituality and faith are at the core of who I am. I was born to deeply religious parents who were able to give me that rock solid foundation in the church and in my faith which really has served me so well. — Condoleezza Rice