Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations -- to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image. Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence. Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God's work.
I do not think that America's greatness is questioned in the world, and I certainly do not think that strident behavior is the best way for a nation to prove its greatness. Indeed, in nations -- as in individuals -- bellicosity is a mark of weakness and self-doubt rather than of strength and self-assurance.
-- J. William Fulbright (1905 - 1995), American politician, academic, and statesman, US Senator from Arkansas from 1945 until 1974, The Arrogance of Power (1966)
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