We do need women in civic life. We do need women to run for office, to be in political office. We need a feminist to be at the table when decisions are being made so that the right decisions will be made.

I second-guess and overthink and rethink every single thing that I do.

I have to tell you, my seven-year-old granddaughter said to my daughter, her mother, ‚So what’s the big deal about Grandma Maddy having been Secretary of State? Only girls are Secretaries of State.‘ Most of her lifetime, it’s true. But at the time it really was a big deal.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.

It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

It’s an endless proving of myself, that I really am a musician, that I have something to offer in the room. That women can be musicians, women can be rock stars, women can be more than an objectified idea of a pop star.

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and to die to find out that there is.

I was tremendously fortunate to be alive and a lawyer, working at a university so I had more flexible hours, when the women’s movement was coming alive and when it became possible to argue successfully for a view of the equal protection clause that included women.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Elections aren’t just about who votes but who doesn’t vote.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues – of my comrades in the movement – who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.

I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.

The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage, or of principle.

All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy – but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that’s how I am guided.

They’re right to think that about me, because I’m the person most likely to sleep with my female fans, I genuinely love other women. And I think they know that.

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out til too late that he’s been playing with two queens all along.

At the end of the day, women are a distraction. Whether you realize it or not.

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

There’s a reason why the Foo Fighters don’t blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them. You know, that’s hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn’t really come up, or it just hasn’t felt right.

I’m always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

I make decisions all day, so it’s nice for a woman like me to go to dinner and have the man take the menu and say, ‚Let me order.‘ Other women would be offended by that, but I’m like, ‚Good. Because I can’t make one more decision today.‘ I want someone to rub my feet without being asked.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.

I’ve never been a feminist.

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

The die is cast.

I think I became more productive through not having children. I never really had the desire to have them. My husband didn’t want them either, so it worked out well.

I always have a basic plot outline, but I like to leave some things to be decided while I write.

People want to go out and travel around and meet cool people. I could just go live in Vermont, but is that what I really want?

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Example is leadership.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

I remember being in Japan when Destiny’s Child put out ‚Independent Women,‘ and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

A man’s own judgment should be the final appeal in all that relates to himself.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.