The price of empire is America's soul, and that price is too high.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the pursuit of power and empire compromises core values and ethics.
J. William Fulbright's quote reflects on the moral cost associated with the pursuit of empire by the United States. It warns that the quest for power and influence can lead to significant sacrifices, including the loss of essential values and ethics, implying that such a cost is unjustifiable for any nation that aspires to uphold its soul and integrity.
In practice
During a discussion about foreign policy, one might refer to Fulbright's quote to emphasize the importance of ethical considerations.
International educational exchange is the most significant current project designed to continue the process of humanizing mankind to the point, we would hope, that men can learn to live in peace-eventually even to cooperate in constructive activities rather than compete in a mindless contest of mutual destruction....We must try to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy and perception, and there is no way of doing that except through education.
Maturity requires a final accommodation between our aspirations and our limitations.
Finally, the Program aims, through these means, to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby to increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.
We have the power to do any damn fool thing we want to do, and we seem to do it about every ten minutes.
The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.
The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win - it's a battle that's going to go on forever. It's part of the human condition.
Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.
One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called "weasel words."
Itβs a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. Itβs the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for.
And if one of our instruments breaks, it doesn't matter. _x000D_ We have fallen into the place where everything is music.
Yes, thou art ever present, power divine; not circumscribed by time, nor fixed by space, confined to altars, nor to temples bound. In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains, in dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.