Progress is the product of human agency. Things get better because we make them better. Things go wrong when we get too comfortable, when we fail to take risks or seize opportunities.
I would rather be alone and a loud voice for action than be silent.
If you want change, you have to make it. If we want progress we have to drive it.
Be who you are. If you spend all of your time worrying about how people view you, you will not be either faithful to yourself or effective in what you're trying to do.
Focus on something that stirs your soul, it's hard to excel at anything that you don't love.
I think one of the real issues that we're faced with is how we consume news, how the media is perceived, how fake news is gaining a degree of currency without criticism that is dangerous, in my judgement.
People are consuming the news that is comfortable for them, not necessarily the news that is real or that they need to know.
Once you've learned to study in a bathing suit on the grass with muscled men throwing frisbees over your head, you can accomplish almost anything.
We have to know who we are and know what we believe.
President Obama is perhaps the smartest person I've ever worked with.
I'm apologetic when I feel like I've made a mistake. And when I have done a disservice to myself or someone else. But I don't feel a need to apologize for doing or saying something that I think needs to be said, just because it may not sit comfortably with somebody else.
I don't worry about how folks want to characterize me.
Americans understand that our security is enhanced when the United States is trusted and respected in the world.
I like to think that with me, what you see is what you get, and you can like or dislike it, it's up to you, but it's straight. That's something that I pride myself on.
There are plenty of meetings, receptions, dinners, and so if you are [at the U.N.] any length of time, and I was there for four and a half years, you formed pretty significant relationships with people from all over the world. And that's important to the work you do. If you're trying to rally the General Assembly to vote for something that matters to the United States, those personal relationships count.
Well, Nigeria has played a constructive role in peacekeeping in various parts of West Africa. But unless and until Nigeria itself is democratic and respects human rights, it too may well be a source of much greater instability as political repression limits the ability of the people of Nigeria to achieve their full potential.
One of the things I love about negotiations is that you have to be able to play it like an orchestra, different instruments for different circumstances. There's sweetness, and encouragement, and cajoling. There's pressure, there's drama, there's ultimatums.
You can't sit on the sidelines and read your iPhone and be on social media and expect everything to be cool. You have to be part of this.
We should learn to tolerate nuclear weapons of North Korea just like we did the Soviet Union.
I am straight forward; I am not manipulative; I am not two-faced. And I think that that has served me well in all of my roles, particularly as a diplomat, because people knew if I said something, I meant it. If I said no, I meant no, and if I said we could make this work, we would make it work.
I have to separate my personal concerns from my professional responsibilities.
The notion that I had become a political lightning rod was painful for me to experience.
The larger picture here is that a North Korea with nuclear weapons adds to the larger proliferation risk.
We have some straight journalism, but then we have opinion and perspective. And I think a lot of people, especially young people, don't know how to tell the difference, and aren't motivated to tell the difference.
I read a ton of paper every day. I read the newspapers, I read my intelligence materials, I read all the briefing materials. I read the newspaper in hard copy.
