Quotes About Principles

In a word trust that man in nothing. Who has not a conscience in everything. — Laurence Sterne

Colonel Graff: We won! That's all that matters. Ender Wiggin: No. The way we win matters.

I don't know of a soul who doesn't maintain two separate lists of doctrines - the ones they believe they believe; and the ones that they actually try to live by.

There are rules to everything, even if nobody made them up, even if nobody calls it a game. And if you want things to work out well, it's best to know the rules and only break them if you're playing a different game and following those rules.

But then, I would rather be mocked for doing a good thing than to be respected, knowing I have done wrong.

I would rather be mocked for doing a good thing than to be respected, knowing I have done wrong.

I don't know a soul who doesn't maintain two separate lists of doctrines—the ones that they believe that they believe; and the ones that they actually try to live by.

There are rules to everything, even if nobody made them up, even if nobody calls it a game. And if you want things to work out well, it's best to know the rules and only break them if you're playing a different game and following those rules.

We're businessmen, Chubs. The moral high ground is wherever we set it.

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.

Conscience makes egotists of us all.

Circumstances should never alter principles!

Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development.

Save us from enormities whether open or hidden

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

I followed my heart without breaking any rules.

If there were an honorable way to get rich, I'd do it, even if it meant being a stooge standing around with a whip. But there isn't an honorable way, so I just do what I like.

There are some with whom we may study in common, but we shall find them unable to go along with us to principles. Perhaps we may go on with them to principles, but we shall find them unable to get established in those along with us. Or if we may get so established along with them, we shall find them unable to weigh occurring events along with us.

Let a ruler base his government upon virtuous principles, and he will be like the pole-star, which remains steadfast in its place, while all the host of stars turn towards it

A legendary horse is praised not for its strength, but for its Integrity.

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.