Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright is an American politician and diplomat. She is the first woman to have become the United States Secretary of State. She was nominated by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth15 May 1937
CitySmichov, Czech Republic
CountryUnited States of America
I really do think about the fact that every day counts. I believe that every individual counts, and so I believe that every day counts and I try not to waste it.
Our life comes in segments, and we have to understand that we can have it all if we're not trying to do it all at once.
The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You're trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren't very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.
Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.
When we're trying to solve difficult national issues its sometimes necessary to talk to adversaries as well as friends. Historians have a word for this: diplomacy.
So there really was a whole series of things that took the women of my generation a little bit of time to push forward.
I got married, I really waited a long time - three days after I graduated.
The bottom line is, the more we have a cadre of women moving up the scale, and it doesn't seem threatening, and people realize that women actually work much harder than men, and realize that they need more women in these jobs, I think that goes away.
I don't actually believe in a clash of civilizations. I believe in a clash of the civilized and the noncivilized.
What distinguishes Americans from many people in the world is our kind of endemic optimism.
The other thing that happened was that we have a tendency to project our own weaknesses onto another woman. I don't think men do that particularly.
I have certain issues. I support women candidates, but I cannot support a woman that I don't believe in. I would prefer to vote for a man who believes in choice than a woman who is pro-life. We have to be able to make distinctions and not look as though we are not feminist enough if we don't support every woman. We need to have that kind of a choice.
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.
US is a very religious country. Separation of church and state is part of our credo, but that it is hard to understand since our money says "In God we trust" and every President says "God bless America".