Quotes About Principle

The mason asks but a narrow shelf to spring his brick from; man requires only an infinitely narrower one to spring his arch of faith from.

No man is fit to be a Senator...unless he is willing to surrender his political life for great principle.

Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?

I will live and die by this testimony: that I loved a good conscience; that I never invaded another man's liberty; and that I preserved my own.

I come from the liberal side of thinking: Better one guilty man should walk free than one innocent man found guilty.

I was reared in a Jehovah's Witness household. I was taught that every man should be judged by his deeds and not his color, and I firmly stand where my grandmother left me.

If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?

... no human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice.

Let's not talk so much about vice. I'm against vice in all forms.

Neither money pays, nor name pays, nor fame, nor learning; it is CHARACTER that cleave through adamantine walls of difference.

We cannot gamble with anything so sacred as money.

I think it is outrageous - to lock people's money away and change the rules on them. So, on point of principle, I stopped putting money into my pension.

But he couldn't lie if you paid him and he'd starve before he stole.

Money, not morality, constitutes the principle of commercial nations.

Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. It's not right. Someone's gotta say it. They said it. I applaud them.

Doing the right thing isn't always easy - in fact, sometimes it's real hard - but just remember that doing the right thing is always right.

'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'

My mother always said to me, 'Right makes might.' At last, I can believe her.

you must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Honor does not have to be defended.

I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't.

Being humble does not mean being weak, reticent, or self-effacing. It means recognizing principle and putting it ahead of self. It means standing firmly for principle, even in the fact of opposition.

I'm not a fighter by nature, but, if I believe in something, I stand up for it.