”Only a nation at peace with itself, with its transgressions as well as its achievements, is capable of a generous understanding of others…When a nation is very powerful but lacking in confidence, it is likely to behave in a manner dangerous to itself and to others. Feeling the need to prove what is obvious to everyone else, it begins to confuse great power with total power and great responsibility with total responsibility: It can admit of no error; it must win every argument, no matter how trivial…Gradually but unmistakably, America is showing signs of that arrogance of which have afflicted, weakened, and in some cases destroyed great nations in the past. In so doing, we are not living up to our capacity and promise as a civilized example for the world. The measure of our falling short is the measure of the patriot´s duty of dissent.”
Senator J. William Fulbright, The Arrogance of Power, 1966, citerad efter Anatol Lieven, America Right or Wrong, 2004.