Condoleezza Rice

“The idea the president of the United States was warned that Al-Qaeda was going to attack the United States and did nothing about it - really? Do you think any president of the United States, if he had even an inkling there was going to be an attack, they wouldn't have moved heaven and earth to try to stop it?”

“Does anybody think these people were just sitting around drinking tea?”

“We are not race blind. Of course we still have racial tensions in this country. But the United States of America has made enormous progress in race relations, and it is still the best place on Earth to be a minority.”

“If it is not possible for me to go somewhere and to be willing to encounter people with different views, then I'm really not doing my job.”

“We're in a new world. We're in a world in which the possibility of terrorism, married up with technology, could make us very, very sorry that we didn't act.”

“The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly Saddam can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

“We've been a country that's been fortunate to be protected by two oceans, to not have serious attacks on our territory for most of our history. And we were unfortunately reminded in a very devastating way of our vulnerability.”

“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.”

“If I'd been a better long-term planner, I'd still be in music, as a musician someplace. So I'll take it one step at a time.”

“Believe it or not, I loved acid rock in college - and I still do.”

“When you're on a golf course, a couple of things are very interesting. No matter who you're with and who you're playing with, people want each other to do well.”

“What the United States has done is to be open to people who are fleeing tyranny, who are fleeing danger, but we have done it in a very careful way that has worked for us.”

“There was no silver bullet that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks.”

“People notice if you are black. People notice if you are female. We are certainly not either colorblind or gender-blind in this country, so I'm not suggesting that it isn't a factor. But I think in the final analysis, people will take a look at the positions, and they'll take a look at the issues.”

“I've been in enough positions to respect people with different views.”

“The essence of America - that which really unites us - is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion - it is an idea - and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.”

“I think Americans are not guilty for 9/11; I think President Bush is not guilty for 9/11.”

“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.”

“I'm actually - believe it or not, for an academic - an aural learner.”

“I got the chance to be the secretary of state; I'm an international relations specialist. It doesn't get better than that.”