I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring womens issues to the center of our foreign policy. – Madeleine Albright
I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government. – Madeleine Albright
No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground. – Madeleine Albright
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. – Madeleine Albright
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld