quotations about principles
It is right that we should stand by and act on our principles; but not right to hold them in obstinate blindness, or retain them when proved to be erroneous.
MICHAEL FARADAY
Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics
I wish to establish some sort of system not guided by chance but by some sort of definite and exact principle.
DMITRI MENDELEEV
lecture to the Russian Chemical Society, "Peering Into the Unseen--What Is Revealed?", Awake!, August 22, 2000
Parents have to instill the right principles in their children, but then it's up to the children to live up to those principles.
MARY LYDON SIMONSEN
The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy
Moral maturity and freedom require more than mere adherence to the law; they require an understanding of the why and wherefore of its rules and regulations -- the principles that make it worthy of their allegiance.
KAREN BOHLIN
Teaching Character Education Through Literature
A man far oftener appears to have a decided character from persistently following his temperament than from persistently following his principles.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Human, All Too Human
Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?
CHARLOTTE BRONTË
Jane Eyre
The change we personally experience from time to time, we deny to our principles.
EBERHARD AUGUST WILHELM ZIMMERMAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
The principle gives birth to the rule; the motive may justify the exception.
AUGUSTUS WILLIAM HARE
Guesses at Truth
There are no principles, only events; there are no laws, only circumstances: a superior man espouses events and circumstances the better to influence them. If fixed principles and laws really existed, countries wouldn't change them as often as we change shirts. One man can't be expected to show more sense than an entire nation.
HONORE DE BALZAC
Father Goriot
Reforms will come as all great reforms have always come in ridding us of evils against both man and animal--not as we change our moral principles but as we discern and accept the implications of principles already held.
MATTHEW SCULLY
Dominion
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953
Principles cannot die.
WADE HAMPTON
attributed, Day's Collacon
The best dowry a man can receive with his wife is good principles; for this is the dowry alone which preserves a family.
HORACE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.
IAN FLEMING
Casino Royale
He who knows right principles is not equal to him who loves them.
CONFUCIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
To my horror principles have wormed their way into [the] fabric of my being.
STEVE TOLTZ
A Fraction of the Whole
In this country our principles should not be silent.
DAN GROAT
A Punctual Paymaster
Genius cannot sanctify impurity or want of principle.
LEVI FRISBIE
attributed, Day's Collacon
I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright.
JAMES BALDWIN
Notes of a Native Son
If a man is not under the controlling influence of right principle, whatever may be the state or exercises of his several mental elements, he is not a morally upright man.
H. WINSLOW
attributed, Day's Collacon