J. William Fulbright Quotes

Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations

We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world.

In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.

The Program further aims to make the benefits of American culture and technology available to the world and to enrich American life by exposing it to the science and art of many societies.

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.

The price of empire is America's soul, and that price is too high.

Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international relations.

"The making of peace is a continuing process that must go on from day to day, from year to year, so long as our civilization shall last."

We must care to think about the unthinkable things, because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

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.

The citizen who criticizes his country is paying it an implied tribute.

Education is a slow moving but powerful force

As a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations.

A nation's budget is full of moral implications; it tells what a society cares about and what it does not care about; it tells what its values are.

I think we Americans tend to put too high a price on unanimity, as if there were something dangerous and illegitimate about honest differences of opinion honestly expressed by honest men.

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.

There is an inevitable divergence between the world as it is and the world as men perceive it.

The greatest single virtue of a strong legislature is not what it can do, but what it can prevent.

The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.

The case for government by elites is irrefutable.

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 own failures.

Insofar as it represents a genuine reconciliation of differences, a consensus is a fine thing; insofar as it represents a concealment of differences, it is a miscarriage of democratic procedure.

Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence.

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.

There has been a tendency through the years for reason and moderation to prevail as long as things are going tolerably well or as long as our problems seem clear and finite and manageable.

Some new machinery with adequate powers must be created now if our fine phrases and noble sentiments are to have substance and meaning for our children.

It is a curiosity of human nature that lack of self-assurance seems to breed an exaggerated sense of power and mission.

Maturity requires a final accommodation between our aspirations and our limitations.

We have the power to do any damn fool thing we want to do, and we seem to do it about every ten minutes.

Science has radically changed the conditions of human life on earth. It has expanded our knowledge and our power, but not our capacity to use them with wisdom.

We would be deliberately violating the fundamental obligations we assumed in the Act of Bogota establishing the Organization of American States.

This is regrettable indeed for a nation that aspires to teach democracy to other nations, because, as Burke said: "Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other."

Power tends to confuse itself with virtue, and a great nation is peculiarly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor.

Israel controls the United States Senate.

"Our government will soon become what it is already a long way toward becoming, an elective dictatorship.

The American public has become so conditioned by crises, by warnings, by words, that there are few, other than the young, who protest against what is happening.

It's unnatural and unhealthy for a nation to be engaged in global crusades for some principle or idea while neglecting the needs of its own people.

Intolerance of dissent is a well-noted feature of the American national character.

I do not think it is "selling America short" when we ask a great deal of her; on the contrary, it is those who ask nothing, those who see no fault, who are really selling America short!

The exchange program is the thing that reconciles me to all the difficulties of political life.

To be a statesman, you must first get elected.

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.

My question is whether America can overcome the fatal arrogance of power.

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.

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith.