principles quotes

63 quotes

The U.S. – the idea that the U.S. has introduced and imposed principles of international law, that’s hardly even a joke. The United States has even gone so far as to veto Security Council resolutions calling on all states to observe international law. That was in the 1980s under Reagan.

Noam Chomsky

If you’re sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.

George W. Bush

I think Bible principles are principles for life.

Joel Osteen

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.

Dolly Parton

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

Thomas Jefferson

When you stand for something, you’ve got to stand for it all the way, not half way.

Kevin Gates

We know what works. Freedom Works. We know what’s right. Freedom is right.

George H. W. Bush

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

George Bernard Shaw

While we should never give up our principles, we must also realize that we cannot maintain our principles unless we survive.

Henry Kissinger

Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.

Groucho Marx

There is a fundamental question we all have to face. How are we to live our lives; by what principles and moral values will we be guided and inspired?

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market system.

George W. Bush

If you want to be a good strategist, you can never just go off a principle you read in a book. You need to adapt what you do to the situation; no rule of thumb is true all the time.

Robert Greene

The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

Noam Chomsky

Custom is our nature. What are our natural principles but principles of custom?

Blaise Pascal

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

Samuel Johnson

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.

Theodore Roosevelt

The traditional stand adopted by the Cuban Revolution, which was always opposed to any action that could jeopardize the life of civilians, is well known.

Fidel Castro

Damn your principles! Stick to your party.

Benjamin Disraeli

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

Jimmy Carter

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

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Our strategic dialogue with China can both protect American interests and uphold our principles, provided we are honest about our differences on human rights and other issues and provided we use a mix of targeted incentives and sanctions to narrow these differences.

Madeleine Albright

When we go to the Bible we should keep in mind that the basic principles of the Bible are taught by God, but written down by human beings deprived of modern day knowledge. So there is some fallibility in the writings of the Bible. But the basic principles are applicable to my life and I don’t find any conflict among them.

Jimmy Carter

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

Noam Chomsky

Although we resolutely supported the armed struggle against Batista’s tyranny, we were, on principle, opposed to any terrorist action that could cause the death of innocent people.

Fidel Castro

My principles are more important than the money or my title.

Muhammad Ali

In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: ‚We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.‘

Jimmy Carter

Having a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing seems to me to be one of the most basic principles that you can adopt to contribute to individual and world peace.

Wayne Dyer

It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.

Edmund Burke

Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.

Stephen Covey

We need to have business leaders who live by deep, strong principles.

Stephen Covey

If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed.

Stephen Hawking

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

George Washington

When we value correct principles, we have truth – a knowledge of things as they are.

Stephen Covey

Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.

Carl von Clausewitz

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

Alexander Hamilton

I glory in the distinguishing grace of God and will not, by the grace of God, step one inch from my principles or think of adhering to the present fashionable sort of religion.

Charles Spurgeon

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.

George Washington

Policies are many, Principles are few, Policies will change, Principles never do.

John C. Maxwell

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.

Mahatma Gandhi

For me, the essence of the great American Dream is spiritual. I believe that our Constitution is inspired and that it is based on principles that are timeless and universal. This is the reason why 95% of all written constitutions throughout the world are modeled after our Constitution.

Stephen Covey

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

Anne Frank

I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

Oscar Wilde

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles.

Stephen Covey

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Mark Twain

Obey the principles without being bound by them.

Bruce Lee

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

Margaret Thatcher

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one’s heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Stephen Covey

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

Immanuel Kant

By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.

Galileo Galilei

To abandon oneself to principles is really to die – and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love.

Albert Camus

Nature never breaks her own laws.

Leonardo da Vinci

Wars based on principle are far more destructive… the attacker will not destroy that which he is after.

Alan Watts

I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

Andrew Carnegie

Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The ‚morality of compromise‘ sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

Andrew Carnegie