PRINCIPLE QUOTES II

quotations about principles

It is right that we should stand by and act on our principles; but not right to hold them in obstinate blindness, or retain them when proved to be erroneous.

MICHAEL FARADAY

Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics


I wish to establish some sort of system not guided by chance but by some sort of definite and exact principle.

DMITRI MENDELEEV

lecture to the Russian Chemical Society, "Peering Into the Unseen--What Is Revealed?", Awake!, August 22, 2000


Parents have to instill the right principles in their children, but then it's up to the children to live up to those principles.

MARY LYDON SIMONSEN

The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy


The change we personally experience from time to time, we deny to our principles.

EBERHARD AUGUST WILHELM ZIMMERMAN

attributed, Day's Collacon


A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953

Tags: Dwight D. Eisenhower


Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

Jane Eyre

Tags: Charlotte Brontë


A man far oftener appears to have a decided character from persistently following his temperament than from persistently following his principles.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Human, All Too Human

Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche


The principle gives birth to the rule; the motive may justify the exception.

AUGUSTUS WILLIAM HARE

Guesses at Truth


Moral maturity and freedom require more than mere adherence to the law; they require an understanding of the why and wherefore of its rules and regulations -- the principles that make it worthy of their allegiance.

KAREN BOHLIN

Teaching Character Education Through Literature


There are no principles, only events; there are no laws, only circumstances: a superior man espouses events and circumstances the better to influence them. If fixed principles and laws really existed, countries wouldn't change them as often as we change shirts. One man can't be expected to show more sense than an entire nation.

HONORE DE BALZAC

Father Goriot

Tags: Honore de Balzac


The best dowry a man can receive with his wife is good principles; for this is the dowry alone which preserves a family.

HORACE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Horace


Reforms will come as all great reforms have always come in ridding us of evils against both man and animal--not as we change our moral principles but as we discern and accept the implications of principles already held.

MATTHEW SCULLY

Dominion


Principles cannot die.

WADE HAMPTON

attributed, Day's Collacon


I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright.

JAMES BALDWIN

Notes of a Native Son

Tags: James Baldwin


If a man is not under the controlling influence of right principle, whatever may be the state or exercises of his several mental elements, he is not a morally upright man.

H. WINSLOW

attributed, Day's Collacon


He who knows right principles is not equal to him who loves them.

CONFUCIUS

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Confucius


Genius cannot sanctify impurity or want of principle.

LEVI FRISBIE

attributed, Day's Collacon


To my horror principles have wormed their way into [the] fabric of my being.

STEVE TOLTZ

A Fraction of the Whole


In this country our principles should not be silent.

DAN GROAT

A Punctual Paymaster


It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

ALFRED ADLER

attributed, Alfred Adler