James William Fulbright Quotes

• Fearful and hostile behavior is not rational but neither is it uncommon, either to individuals or to nations, including our own.

  James William Fulbright

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

  James William Fulbright

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• In the name of noble purposes men have committed unspeakable acts of cruelty against one another.

  James William Fulbright

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• 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.

  James William Fulbright

• 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.

  James William Fulbright

• What they fear, I think rightly, is that traditional Vietnamese society cannot survive the American economic and cultural impact.

  James William Fulbright

• 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.

  James William Fulbright

• To be a statesman, you must first get elected.

  James William Fulbright

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

  James William Fulbright

• 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.

  James William Fulbright

• 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.

  James William Fulbright

• 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.

  James William Fulbright

• The rapprochement of peoples is only possible when differences of culture and outlook are respected and appreciated rather than feared and condemned, when the common bond of human dignity is recognized as the essential bond for a peaceful world.

  James William Fulbright

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

  James William Fulbright

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

  James William Fulbright

• 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.

  James William Fulbright

• The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust our own government statements. I had no idea until then that you could not rely on them.

  James William Fulbright

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

  James William Fulbright

• 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.

  James William Fulbright

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

  James William Fulbright

James William Fulbright (33)

Birth:	9th April, 1905
Death:	9th February, 1995
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Politician

About

James William Fulbright was born in Sumner, Missouri, USA. He was an American politician, lawyer and lecturer. He was a United States Senator representing Arkansas from January 1945 until his resignation in December 1974. He is the longest serving chairman in the history of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He earned a AB degree in history from the University of Arkansas in 1925. He studied at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke College, graduating in 1928. He earned an MA degree from Oxford University in 1931. He received his law degree from The George Washington University Law School in 1934. He was a lecturer in law at the University of Arkansas from 1936 until 1939. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas's 3rd district(1943-1945). In 1993, President Bill Clinton presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Fulbright. He wrote several books include: Prospects for the West, The arrogance of power, The price of empire, The Pentagon propaganda machine, and The crippled giant.

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