Quotes About Principles

Logic is always applicable to the real world," Miyasi said dismissively, "but only a novice would think the real world can be applied to logic. Ideals must be first principles. Not the mundane world.

The end did not justify the means, but justifiable means that brought about a fair and necessary conclusion were not to be dismissed.

There are fights that you may lose without losing your honor; what makes you lose your honor is not to fight. -Jaques Jaujard

There are fights that you may lose without losing your honor; what makes you lose your honor is not to fight them."19

I suppose the stern and the cruel ones rule the world. If so, I shall be content to try to live each day within the limits of my conscience and let great plaudits go to those who are willing to pay the price for it."7

The classic mode, by contrast, proceeds by reason and by laws—which are themselves underlying forms of thought and behavior.

Walk into any of a hundred thousand classrooms today and hear the teachers divide and subdivide and interrelate and establish "principles" and study "methods" and what you will hear is the ghost of Aristotle speaking down through the centuries—the desiccating lifeless voice of dualistic reason.

ohne den Menschen etwas vorschreiben zu dürfen, würde die Moral gar kein Vergnügen bereiten.

The body of reality is always richer than the mere outline sketch we call principles.

It matters what myths we tell ourselves -- which ideals we choose to honor.

To think about fairness, think of economic life as a game - a serious game. All ideas about fairness can be divided into two broad groups. They are: - It isn't fair if the result isn't fair. - It isn't fair if the rules aren't fair.

Not even hatred can corrode real honor.

best: "Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: "Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

But it ain't our feelings we have to steer by through life--no, no, we'd make shipwreck mighty often if we did that. There's only the one safe compass and we've got to set our course by that--what it's right to do.

We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great.

We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great. Hold fast to your ideals, Anne.

But you were a goody-goody, you said.' 'Even goody-goodies think about such things. In fact, I would say that's what defines us. We're always thinking about the things we don't dare do, figuring out where the lines are drawn, so we can go right up to the edge of things, then plead innocence on the ground of a technicality.

I worry that when you start quoting Machiavelli to justify your actions, you have ceased to be one of the good guys.

Morals aren't just for when it's easy, Anita. They aren't morals if you throw them aside every time it's convenient.

Some of the most deeply moral people I knew were least politically correct, because they actually worried about good and evil, not just what they were told was good or bad.

There are some things that are more important than physical survival. You gotta be able to look at yourself in the mirror. I gave up my gun for the same reason I'd stopped for the child. There was no choice. I was one of the good guys. Good guys were self-sacrificing. It was a rule somewhere.

Lastly, people seemed to think that morality was the same thing as being politically correct, and it wasn't. Some of the most deeply moral people I knew were least politically correct, because they actually worried about good and evil, not just what they were told was good or bad.

Sometimes being an adult means doing the right thing, even if it's not what you want.