Acceding to Roosevelt's request would have cemented Wilson's standing with pro-war Republicans; turning him down alienated them permanently. - Arthur Herman

Wilson was raising America up as the new global colossus based on its moral authority as a universal nation.

Democracy makes a stable civic life impossible. As Nietzsche's Zarathustra says, "I turned my back on those who rule when I saw what they call ruling: higgling and haggling for power with the rabble."

concentration of wealth in capitalist countries must inevitably lead to war. That intense concentration — Britain, France, Germany, and the United States together, Lenin noted, controlled nearly 80 percent of the world's financial capital — had reduced the possibility for fresh profits in capitalist countries themselves, including the United States.