Quotes About Principle

On principle' a man can do anything, take part in anything and himself remain inhuman and indeterminate. 'On principle' a man may interest himself in the founding of a brothel, and the same man can 'on principle' assist in the publication of a new Hymn book because it is supposed to be the great need of the times. But it would be as unjustifiable to conclude from the first fact that he was debauched as it would, perhaps, be to conclude from the second that he read or sang hymns.

On principle' one can do anything and what one does is, fundamentally, a matter of indifference, just as a man's life remains insignificant even though 'on principle' he gives his support to all the 'needs of the times.

It matters, it always matters, to name rubbish as rubbish … to do otherwise is to legitimize it. Outside The Whale ( Granta , 1984)

It seemed that digression was the true principle of the universe, that the only real subject was the way the subject kept changing.

when he took his stand on the draft, refusing to go to 'Nam, sacrificing his title, risking jail, putting it all on the line for a principle, he became, well, awesome. In those days the word still meant what it was supposed to mean, "inspiring great admiration/awe," and Ali did that.

Nothing that a Christian, a Muslim, and a Hindu can experience—self-transcending love, ecstasy, bliss, inner light—constitutes evidence in support of their traditional beliefs, because their beliefs are logically incompatible with one another. A deeper principle must be at work.

Christopher Hitchens for distilling, in a single phrase, a principle of discourse that could well arrest our slide toward the abyss: "what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."15 Let us pray that billions of us soon agree with him.

Identity must start with humanity as a founding principle, and human rights as a basis.

You know, my family stood for something that they believed in, and I wasn't about to turn my back on them.

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

Just remember, strength and courage. If you stand on principle, you'll never lose.

Be entirely tolerant or not at all; follow the good path or the evil one. To stand at the crossroads requires more strength than you possess.

Integrity gains strength by use.

But it was ever thus, all through my life: whenever I have diverged from custom and principle and uttered a truth, the rule has been that the hearer hadn't strength of mind enough to believe it.

A person who has truly realized the principle of nonviolence has the God given strength for his weapon, and the world has not yet known anything that can match it.

Her strength was in the integrity of her actions; she never compromised what she believed she ought to do.

The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Success lies in doing not what others consider to be great but what you consider to be right.

It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.

By a lie, a man... annihilates his dignity as a man.

Some campaigns are not worth waging if you can't win; others have to be fought on grounds of principle regardless of the chances for success.

Doing the right thing is not the problem. Knowing what the right thing is, that's the challenge.

The lesser evil is also evil.