Quotes by J. W. Fulbright

Purpose of the Fulbright Porgram:

"In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine."
- Quoted in New York Times (June 26, 1986) regarding Fulbright program.

"The great strength and enduring value of the Fulbright Program has been its ability to work patiently and persistently to build human networks around the globe."

"The simple, basic purpose of the Fulbright exchange program we intitiated over forty years ago is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another."

"...to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries..."
- Fulbright legislation

"The exchange program is not a panacea but an avenue of hope -- possibly our best hope and conceivably our only hope -- for the survival and further progree of humanity"

"The essential aim of the Fulbright Program is to encourage people in all countries, and especially their political leaders, to stop denying others the right to their own view of reality and to develop a new manner of thinking about how to avoid war rather than to wage it."

Other:

"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. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about "unthinkable things" because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless."

"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."


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