ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER

We should be proud of our country when we have done something to be proud of, when we have lived up to our own standards. But the flip side of genuine pride is being able to recognize when we have fallen short, and to hold ourselves to account.

Over my lifetime, women have demonstrated repeatedly that they can do anything that men can do, while still managing traditional women's work at the same time. But the same expansion of roles has not been available to men.

When I used to teach civil procedure as a law professor, I would begin the year by telling my students that 'civil procedure is the etiquette of ritualized battle.' The phrase, which did not originate with me, captured the point that peaceful, developed societies resolve disputes by law rather than by force.

Patriotism demands the ability to feel shame as much as to feel pride.

Young men keep telling me they don't 'have it all' either. And they may have a point. But if you define 'having it all' as the opportunity to have a successful career and a family, I'd say this. When a man tells his coworkers he's going to have a child, no one asks him how he'll manage or if he'll be coming back to work.

If we're going to have better choices for women, we've got to have better choices for men.

Believe it or not, we will actually be better and happier workers if we are allowed to be better parents. We might even rediscover our capacity for fun.

What mothers need, as well as fathers, spouses, and the children of aging parents, is an entire national infrastructure of care, every bit as important as the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, tunnels, broadband, parks and public works.

Someone must transform income into the food, shelter, clothing, nurture, discipline, education, minding, nursing, transportation, and emotional support that creates life outside of the office, permits survival of the race, cares for the ill and disabled, and makes life livable when we can no longer care for ourselves.

The false pride of perennial celebration, of wearing flag lapel pins while betraying the values that the flag stands for, is like the self-esteem curriculum for toddlers, where everything is praised and no achievement ultimately has meaning.

The preemptive use of force has always been part of international law.

America’s history is a continual process of trying to live up to our ideals, falling short, succeeding in some places and trying again others

the signing of the Declaration of Independence … This was the first public assertion of equality.

Ambitious parents need more flexibility in how, where, and when they work, including the ability to work less or even not at all for a period. Equally important, they will need employers … who don’t view this kind of a zig-zag career path as a lack of commitment or professionalism.

I don’t know anyone in government who would read the academic journals that policy school professors get rewarded for publishing in.

The very promise of safety [digital security] is iresistable temptation to hackers, the invading hordes of the 21st century.

People must accept that their governments cannot guarantee absolute safety. A measure of insecurity is the price of liberty and democracy. It’s a price worth paying.

Much of the civil rights work of this century will entail championing digital rights.

Overly concentrated power, whether in public, private or even in civic hands is an invitation to abuse.

In a democracy, data about the people belongs to the people.

The masters of the new technologies cannot master the power of politics, even if they were right to challenge the current deep dysfunction of the U. S. Political system.

The United States was famously founded as a government of limited powers; suspicion of concentrated private power has surged in periodic waves throughout its history.

If the current international order proves too brittle to change, it will simply crumble.

For every nongovernmental organization that has been granted hard-won observer status at a UN meeting, thousands more have been shot out by the state [national] gatekeepers of the curren international system.

Open societies, open governments, and an open international system are risky propositions. But they are humankind’s best hope for harnessing the power not only of states, but also of businesses, universities, civic organizations, and citizens to address the planetary problems that now touch us all.