It is not our affluence, or our plumbing, or our clogged freeways that grip the imagination of others. Rather, it is the values upon which our system is built. These values imply our adherence not only to liberty and individual freedom, but also to international peace, law and order, and constructive social purpose. When we depart from these value, we do so at our peril.

—J. William Fulbright

About J. William Fulbright

Portrait of J. William Fulbright

James William Fulbright (April 9, 1905 – February 9, 1995) was an American politician, academic, and statesman who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 1945 until his resignation in 1974. As of 2023, Fulbright is the longest-serving chairman in the history of the United States Senate Committee...

More quotations tagged with “values”

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

—Dwight D. Eisenhower

People everywhere have the same needs and values. They need a place to live and a job. Beyond that, they may need to sell stuff or get a mate.

—Craig Newmark

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man's values, it has to be earned.

An enormous conflict between words and deeds is prevalent today: everyone talks about freedom, democracy, justice, human rights, about peace and saving the world from nuclear apocalypse; and at the same time, everyone, more or less, consciously or unconsciously, serves those values and ideals only to the extent necessary to serve himself and his "worldly" interests, personal interests, group interests, power interests, property interests, and state or great-power interests. . . . So the power structures apparently have no other choice than to sink deeper into this vicious maelstrom, and contemporary people apparently have no other choice than to wait around until the final inhibition drops away. But who should begin? Who should break this vicious circle? Responsibility cannot be preached but only borne, and the only possible place to begin is with oneself.

—Vaclav Havel

justice truth power freedom peace words democracy change responsibility talk values

History

11 Jul 2015 Added