[Only by] the good influence of our conduct may we bring salvation in human affairs; or like a fatal comet we may bring destruction in our train.

by Senator J. William Fulbright, "In Need of a Consensus," Penrose Memorial Lecture, delivered to the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1961. Proceedings of the Society, August 1961, p. 352. Reported as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).