Religion – Weltanschauung – Recht [ RWR ]

Peoples are not to be handed about from one sovereignty to another by an international conference or an understanding between rivals and antagonists. National aspirations must be respected; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. “Self-determination” is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.

Aufgelesen in: Arthur S. Link, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 46: January 16 – March 12, 1918, 1984, p. 321.