Like medieval theologians we had a philosophy that explained everything to us in advance, and everything that did not fit could be readily identified as a fraud or a lie or an illusion... The perniciousness of the anti-Communist ideology of the Truman Doctrine arises not from any patent falsehood but from its distortion and simplification of reality, from its universalization and its elevation to the status of a revealed truth.
J. William FulbrightA 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.
J. William FulbrightAs a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations.
J. William FulbrightI 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.
J. William FulbrightIn the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.
J. William FulbrightEducational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations. Man's capacity for decent behavior seems to vary directly with his perception of others as individual humans with human motives and feelings, whereas his capacity for barbarism seems related to his perception of an adversary in abstract terms, as the embodiment, that is, of some evil design or ideology.
J. William Fulbright