Words matter. These are the best J. William Fulbright Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.
When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled.
There has been a strong tradition in this country that it is not the function of the military to educate the public on political issues.
The Soviet Union has indeed been our greatest menace, not so much because of what it has done, but because of the excuses it has provided us for our failures.
In the name of noble purposes men have committed unspeakable acts of cruelty against one another.
The cause of our difficulties in southeast Asia is not a deficiency of power but an excess of the wrong kind of power which results in a feeling of impotence when it fails to achieve its desired ends.
I do not question the power of our weapons and the efficiency of our logistics; I cannot say these things delight me as they seem to delight some of our officials, but they are certainly impressive.
Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God’s work.
In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest.
Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with whom we have reciprocal legal obligations.
There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world.
Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international relations.
The price of empire is America’s soul, and that price is too high.
We have the power to do any damn fool thing we want to do, and we seem to do it about every 10 minutes.
What they fear, I think rightly, is that traditional Vietnamese society cannot survive the American economic and cultural impact.
As a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations.
When we violate the law ourselves, whatever short-term advantage may be gained, we are obviously encouraging others to violate the law; we thus encourage disorder and instability and thereby do incalculable damage to our own long-term interests.
We are trying to remake Vietnamese society, a task which certainly cannot be accomplished by force and which probably cannot be accomplished by any means available to outsiders.
There is an inevitable divergence between the world as it is and the world as men perceive it.
Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence.
