J. William Fulbright
Politician
1905-04-09
Quotes by J. William Fulbright
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My question is whether America can overcome the fatal arrogance of power.
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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.
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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.
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Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international relations.
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To be a statesman, you must first get elected.
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In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.
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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.
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The citizen who criticizes his country is paying it an implied tribute.
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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.
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In the name of noble purposes men have committed unspeakable acts of cruelty against one another.
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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.
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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.
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What they fear, I think rightly, is that traditional Vietnamese society cannot survive the American economic and cultural impact.
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The junior senator from Wisconsin, by his reckless charges, has so preyed upon the fears and hatreds and prejudices of the American people that he has started a prairie fire which neither he nor anyone else may be able to control.
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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.
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