Jefferson on Soft Power

Not in [my] day, but at no distant one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all which may make the stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our power and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

—Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Thomas Leiper (1815) from: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial ed.), vol. 14, p. 308.