I do not believe that things happen accidentally; I believe you earn them.
The main thing is to remain oneself, under any circumstances; that was and is our common purpose.
In A Man With a Pipe, my brother observed that although my father had been seen as intellectual and my mother more a creature of temperament, she had often been the more levelheaded of the two. In sum, we miss them as we love them, equally and always.
If we have to use force, it is because we are America.
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.
Every new president inherits headaches, but President Obama has inherited an entire emergency room.
Our predecessors understood that the ties that bind America are far stronger than disagreements over any particular policy and far more durable and profound than any party affiliation.
I think this is a very hard choice, but the price – we think the price is worth it.
We have the most generous immigration policy, but what is a concern is when illegal immigrants come and undermine a variety of the systems that work in order to make our society function.
We have a responsibility in our time, as others have had in theirs, not to be prisoners of history but to shape history, a responsibility to fill the role of path-finder, and to build with others a global network of purpose and law.
I never dreamed about one day becoming Secretary of State. It’s not that I was modest; it’s just that I had never seen a Secretary of State in a skirt.
If there’s nobody in your way, you’re not going anywhere.
We must help women in every society to have their voices heard.
Glass ceilings have been broken, but more have to be broken.
Leaders are made by the situations they are involved in. I think that some rise to the occasion and some do not.
Really, I have to laugh because there was a whole set of stories that made me sound like the Dragon Lady, you know, ‘tough this and tough that.’ Then there is this business about ‘gooey.’ The bottom line is I am a pragmatic idealist.
Libraries are fun, educational, and the biggest bargain on the face of the earth.
I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.
I think I’ve revived the costume-jewelry industry.
Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.