My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family, by Condi Rice: on Principles & Values

Condoleezza Rice: Named after musical term "con dolcezza" or "with sweetness"

Mother started thinking about names for her daughter. She wanted a name that would be unique and musical. Looking into Italian musical terms for inspiration, she at first settled on Andantino. But realizing that it translated as "moving slowly," she decided that she didn't like the implications of that name. Allegro was worse because it translated as "fast." Finally she found the musical term "con dolce" and "con dolcezza," meaning "with sweetness." Deciding that an English speaker would never recognize the hard c, saying "dolci" instead of "dolche," my mother doctored the term. She settled on Condoleezza.

Condoleezza Rice: Two white great-grandfathers, one on each side of family

We still have a lot of trouble with the truth of how tangled our family histories are. These legacies are painful and remind us of America's birth defect: slavery. I can remember being asked how I felt when I learned that I apparently had 2 white great-grandfathers, one on each side of the family. I just considered it a fact--no feelings were necessary. We all have white ancestors, and some whites have black ancestors.

Condoleezza Rice: Grandmother gave Condi piano lessons starting at age 3

Grandmother Ray decided that it was unusual for a kid to know the difference and asked my mother if she could start giving me piano lessons. I was 3 years old, and they wondered if it might be too early but decided to give it a try. Unlike the early experiment with 1st grade, this worked. I loved the piano.

I'd play for hours. It was hard to get me to do anything else, including read books or watch television.

Condoleezza Rice: Father brought 1960s black radicals to dinner table

My father was fascinated with the radical side of black politics. I was never taught that Farrakhan was a traitor or that the Black Panthers were terrorists. They were to be taken seriously on their merits. Years later, when so much attention was paid to then-Senator Obama's radical associations, I wondered what might have been made of the people who sat at our dinner table.

Condoleezza Rice: 1986: Suffered myomectomy surgery for uterine fibroids

This was terrible news. In the back of my mind I had always assumed that I would get married and have kids. I wanted to find that special man because I had been inspired by the wonderful example my parents had provided through their marriage. I was not at all concerned that marriage might hold me back professionally. And frankly, I'd always hoped to marry within my race. If the right man does not come along, it is better to enjoy a fulfilling and happy life as a single person. But in 1986, at the age of 30, the prospect of not even having the OPTION to have kids was devastating.

I asked whether there were other approaches. He was having great success with myomectomy, which removed the fibroids and left the uterus intact. Several days later I had the surgery, which took more than 7 hours.

George Bush Sr.: Sent notes to foreign leaders to build relationships

"Is he kidding?" I thought. "He's the President." But I learned that day, and would see throughout my time with him, that this wasn't false modesty: George H.W. Bush is simply one of the nicest and most self-effacing people that I've ever met. He taught me so much about leading people. Countless times he would send a congratulatory note to a foreign leader for a seemingly innocuous achievement. I came to understand that he was building a relationship, which served him well when he needed to ask that leader to do something hard. Even I frequently received a thank-you note from the President for a job well done, and this kindness and courtesy made it a joy to work with him. Most important, his natural geniality served American diplomacy well when he was faced with revolutionary changes in world politics.

Ronald Reagan: Stanford University rejected Reagan presidential library

One of the precipitating events occurred in 1988, when the university had ended the core humanities curriculum, called Western Civilization. Western Civ had been deemed to be about "dead white men" and therefore unacceptable for a multiethnic, multiracial, multigendered campus. The course had been replaced with Culture, Ideas and Values, also known as CIV, without the offending "Western" preceding it. CIV's curriculum required race at least one book by a "woman of color."

The rifts became chasms when Stanford rejected the request of the family of Ronald Reagan to establish his presidential library on campus. Ostensibly, the excuse was traffic congestion at the site, but everyone knew that it had been the agitation of a small but vocal group that forced the university to turn down the library.