“We are heartbroken to announce that Dr Madeleine Albright, the 64th US secretary of state and the first woman to hold that position, passed away earlier today,” Tweeted the family on her official account. “…She was surrounded by family and friends. We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.” Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelova) was born in Smichhov, Prague on May 15, 1937. In 1939, after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia, she and her family escaped to London. After the war the family returned to Czechoslovakia. By the time Albright was 11, the family was forced to flee the Communist regime. This time the family got political asylum in Denver, Colorado where Albright’s father, a diplomat who served as an ambassador and was then a UN delegate, became a political science professor. Albright who was raised Roman Catholic was never told that her family was actually Jewish and had converted during World War II. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she learned that 26 members of her family were murdered during the Holocaust. In 1957, at the age of 20, Albright, who spoke Czech, French, Serbo-Croat and English, became a U.S. citizen. Two years later she graduated from Wellesley College, married Joseph Albright, (who she divorced in 1983) and ultimately got her master’s degree and Ph.D. in public law and government from Columbia University. She had three children with Joseph Albright, Alice Patterson Albright, Katherine Medill Albright and Anne Korbel Albright. A brilliant mind, she began her career in government and public affairs writing books, working on Sen. Edmund Muskie’s 1972 presidential campaign. She worked for Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Albright was a foreign policy adviser former Sen. Walter F. Mondale,Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and President Bill Clinton. In 1993, President Clinton appointed Albright to be an ambassador to the United Nations. In 1997, when she was nominated to be Secretary of State, the senate unanimously confirmed her. She was devoted to advancing peace in the Middle East and advocated for human rights throughout the globe. In 2012, when President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, he talked about all she had accomplished. “Madeleine’s courage and toughness helped bring peace to the Balkans and paved the way for progress in some of the most unstable corners of the world,” he said. “And as an immigrant herself, the granddaughter of Holocaust victims who fled her native Czechoslovakia as a child, Madeleine brought a unique perspective to the job.” Then President Obama offered one of his favorite stories about her. “Once, at a naturalization ceremony, an Ethiopian man came up to her and said, ‘Only in America can a refugee meet the Secretary of State.’ And she replied, ‘Only in America can a refugee become the Secretary of State.’” As we look back on Albright’s historic career and legacy, here are 20 of Madeleine Albright’s best quotes. —“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” —Madeleine Albright —“I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.” —Madeleine Albright —“Women can’t do everything at the same time, we need to understand milestones in our lives come in segments.” —Madeleine Albright —“I think women are really good at making friends and not good at networking. Men are good at networking and not necessarily making friends. That’s a gross generalization, but I think it holds in many ways.” —Madeleine Albright —“I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men’s clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.” —Madeleine Albright —“Jewelry and pins have been worn throughout history as symbols of power, sending messages. Interestingly enough, it was mostly men who wore the jewelry in various times, and obviously crowns were part of signals that were being sent throughout history by people of rank.” —Madeleine Albright —“So people are talking about revolution. What a revolution it would be to have a woman president.” —Madeleine Albright —“I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive–including me.” —Madeleine Albright —“Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.” —Madeleine Albright —“As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.” —Madeleine Albright —“Hate, emotionalism, and frustration are not policies.” —Madeleine Albright —“A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it’s not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It’s more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.” —Madeleine Albright —“I do believe that in order to be a successful negotiator that as a diplomat, you have to be able to put yourself into the other person’s shoes. Unless you can understand what is motivating them, you are never going to be able to figure out how to solve a particular problem.” —Madeleine Albright —“While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.” —Madeleine Albright —The magic of America is that we’re a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom." —Madeleine Albright —“If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.” —Madeleine Albright —“We will not be intimidated or pushed off the world stage by people who do not like what we stand for, and that is, freedom, democracy and the fight against disease, poverty and terrorism.” —Madeleine Albright —“Take it from someone who fled the Iron Curtain: I know what happens when you give the Russians a green light.” —Madeleine Albright —I think that we all know what evil is. We have a sense of what’s evil, and certainly killing innocent people is evil. We’re less sure about what is good. There’s sort of good, good enough, could be better - but absolute good is a little harder to define." —Madeleine Albright —“Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.” —Madeleine Albright Next, Why We Grieve Celebrities—and Why That’s Good for Our Health
