Susan Rice Quotes

The election in Iraq clearly demonstrates that Iraqi people are like people everywhere. They desire to create a future in an environment that is safe and allows them to reach their full potential as human beings, whatever that potential may be.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. If Nigeria succeeds at democratic governance it will be an anchor for all of West Africa. Africa needs a strong Nigeria.

Democracy cannot sustain itself amid a high degree of violence.

As the leader of Southeast Asia's oldest democracy, I am always keen to share our experiences. In the half-century since independence, we have found that steady reform is the best way to secure lasting stability. It is a process that continues in Malaysia to this day.

It's time to bury the unreal, failed 'realism' of those who have long thought that dictators brought stability.

The raids on Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute, the Adenauer Foundation, and other groups helping Egyptians move toward respect for democratic politics and human rights were of a piece with the practices of Hosni Mubarak - only bolder and more repressive.

We all would like to see a brighter future for Haiti, and I hope this conference will serve to explore many views. Respect for human rights, freedom, and the rule of law must be established in the poorest nation in our hemisphere.

An overall trend of political moderation in Latin America makes for far less interesting headlines, but it also makes for far better lives for our people.

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.

Democracies are expense-averse and they think in terms of short-term, political interests rather than a long-term interest in stability.

We seek in Central America not peace alone, not peace to be followed someday by political progress, but peace and democracy, together, indivisible, an end to the shedding of human blood, which is inseparable from an end to the suppression of human rights.

Pakistan's future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy.

In the end, it's a good investment for America to be involved in helping people get democratic governance - not to take over their country - but to help people be free. And that is an investment that will pay off in the future.

In many emerging democracies, democracy and stability are mutually incompatible.

Nondemocratic regimes imperil the security of the world. They stay in power by controlling their populations. This control invariably requires an increasing amount of repression. To justify this repression and maintain internal stability, external enemies must be manufactured.

Democracy is good, provided the government can function.

It is our moral duty to intervene today, straight away, to help the Iraqi people in their difficulty. Iraq has to be given back to the Iraqi people

Peace, political stability and reconciliation are not too much to ask for. They are the minimum that a decent civilized society provides.

Advancing democracy does not always foster political stability.

No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.

For 60 years, my country. The United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy … in the Middle East, and we achieved neither.

The richest countries in the world are democracies. The most stable countries in the world are democracies. There are no tensions between the two.

Instead of providing a model for democracy, Turkey's leader represents a throwback: an elected autocrat, tolerated by the West for maintaining a certain stability within and without, overseeing a procedural democracy with a pliant press and a dominent political party that serves only his wishes.

We know, deep down, that repression is not the wave of the future. We know that the desire for freedom is not confined to, or owned by, any culture; it is the inborn hope of our humanity. We know that free governments are the only way to ensure that the strong are just and the weak are valued. And we know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed. It is the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy.

One of the enduring problems with certain societies in the world - and this is certainly true of a lot of places in the Middle East - is that the capacity for self-governance and self-organizing just isn't there. It has to do with history.