Quotes About Principles

A life in politics is for people who know themselves and know where their own line is between loyalty and honesty.

I don't believe in honesty at all costs.

All is lost save honor.

There is an honor to what we do, and there are no shortcuts.

A writer has to live with a sense of honor.

I think service is honorable, and that was always inculcated in me.

It is better to be honourable than be honoured.

People send me records, and if don't like them, I won't do them; I don't care how much money you offer.

I respect anyone who has to fight and howl for his decency.

We believe in liberty, we believe in limited government, we believe in free enterprise, we believe in family values and the sanctity of human life, and we all believe Washington needs a good dose of Economics 101.

Human rights only have meaning if they are universal.

Humanitarian action cannot be held hostage to political ends.

In ethics, there is a humility; moralists are usually righteous.

If you always do the easier thing, then you cannot possibly remain steadfast when it becomes necessary to take a difficult stand. You must do what you know to be right. And you do know. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred you do know and you are just making excuses because the right thing is so hard, or just inconvenient.

Oh, 'twould be marvelous if the world and its moral questions were like some game board, with plain black players and white, and fixed rules, and nary a shade of grey.

No other civilization anywhere in history ever moved in this direction — only the West, under the influence of Christian principles. Along with equality came the idea of inalienable, God-given rights, which led to the Enlightenment emphasis on life, liberty, property, and virtue.

There are values far beyond those of contracts, markets and exchange

You know what Mr. Bates called me?" Seward shook his head with wonder. "An unprincipled liar. And here I am one of the most heavily principled men in politics." Lincoln chuckled. In every way, making allowances for regional differences, Seward's humor was not unlike his own. "And since you're a smart man, Governor, you never actually lie. Smart men never have to.

I know one thing you don't. I know the difference between Right and Wrong. They didn't teach you that at school.' Rose didn't answer; the woman was quite right: the two words meant nothing to her. Their taste was extinguished by stronger foods--Good and Evil.

Heroism began where politics stopped.

The god believed by the Ancient Egyptians to have taught the principles of astronomy to their ancestors was Thoth: He who reckons in heaven, the counter of the stars, the enumerator of the earth and of what is therein, and the measurer of the earth.

studying extreme deviations from stated principles

Right meant more than might; that being faithful and good meant more than being rich; that honor superseded all.

a man has to draw the line somewhere. Civilisation, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit.