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Principles Quotes

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Principles Quotes

“Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction that, after the most industrious and impartial researchers, the longest liver of you all will find no principles, institutions or systems of education more fit in general to be transmitted to your posterity than those you have received from your ancestors.”

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Author:John Adams
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“If we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers, Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and human happiness. Auspicious omens cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our own firmament now shines brightly upon our path.”

IfsHumansFatherHeavenLibertyPrinciplesVirtuePathExampleShiningCherishCheerOur FatherPietyOmenHuman HappinessFirmament
Book:The Great Orations and Senatorial Speech of Daniel Webster
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“In all things, therefore, where we have clear evidence from our ideas, and those principles of knowledge I have above mentioned, reason is the proper judge; and revelation, though it may, in consenting with it, confirm its dictates, yet cannot in such cases invalidate its decrees: nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentience of reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is matter of faith: which can have no authority against the plain and clear dictates of reason.”

MayIdeasMatterReasonFaithOpinionPrinciplesCasesClearJudgingAuthorityEvidenceAll ThingsContraryQuittingRevelationsEvidentObligedDecreePretence
Book:An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
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“The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it... He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that...in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it.”

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Author:Adam Smith
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“Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course. ... An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time.”

IfsWholeCoursesInterestPrinciplesIssuesGrowingHonestPaperDelusionViolationAristocracyRobbersDeposits
Book:Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]
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“Civil rights, as we may remember, are reducible to three primary heads; the right of personal security; the right of personal liberty; and the right of private property. In a state of slavery, the two last are wholly abolished, the person of the slave being at the absolute disposal of his master; and property, what he is incapable, in that state, either of acquiring, or holding, in his own use. Hence, it will appear how perfectly irreconcilable a state of slavery is to the principles of a democracy, which form the basis and foundation of our government.”

MayPersonsTwoStatesUseGovernmentLastsRememberFormThreeLibertyPrinciplesDemocracyRightsSecurityMastersBasesAbsolutesFoundationSlaveryPropertySlaveCivil RightsPrimariesIncapablePrivate PropertyPersonal LibertyPersonal Security
Book:A Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in the State of Virginia
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“Since natural law was thought to be accessible to the ordinary man, the theory invited each juror to inquire for himself whether a particular rule of law was consonant with principles of higher law. This view is reflected in John Adams' statement that it would be an 'absurdity' for jurors to be required to accept the judge's view of the law, 'against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.'”

MenWould BeLawNaturalViewsAcceptingOpinionPrinciplesParticularJudgingTheoryHigherJudgmentOrdinaryConscienceStatementsAbsurdityInvitedRule Of LawNatural LawOrdinary ManConsonantsJurorsHigher Law
Author:John Adams
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“The Europeans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of. They are all infected with episcopal and presbyterian creeds, and confessions of faith. They all believe that great Principle which has produced this boundless universe, Newton's universe and Herschell's universe, came down to this little ball, to be spit upon by Jews. And until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.”

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Book:The Portable John Adams
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“Conscience, the sense of right, the power of perceiving moral distinctions, the power of discerning between justice and injustice, excellence and baseness, is the highest faculty given us by God, the whole foundation of our responsibility, and our sole capacity for religion. ...God, in giving us conscience, has implanted a principle within us which forbids us to prostrate ourselves before mere power, or to offer praise where we do not discover worth.”

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Author:William Ellery Channing
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“The machines that are first invented to perform any particular movement are always the most complex, and succeeding artists generally discover that, with fewer wheels, with fewer principles of motion, than had originally been employed, the same effects may be more easily produced. The first systems, in the same manner, are always the most complex.”

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Book:The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master
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“The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature. . . . [In] the formation of the American governments . . . it will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of heaven. . . . These governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”

FirstsPersonsStatesReasonUseGovernmentAmericaReligionHeavenChurchSimpleUnitedPrinciplesUnited StatesAtheismInfluenceExampleDegreesSeparationSensesInterviewsSecularUnited States Of AmericaEmployedChurch And StateFormationSeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersFounding Fathers ChristianState GovernmentUs Founding FathersSeparation Between Church And StateFounding Fathers ReligiousAmerican GovernmentReligion GodChristian ChurchConstitution Of The United StatesFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistDeismReligion ChristianChristian FatherUnited States GovernmentReligion And GovernmentAmerican Constitution
Author:John Adams
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“The ingenerating of a principle of grace in the soul seems in Scripture to be compared to the conceiving of Christ in the womb... And the conception of Christ in the womb of the blessed virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost, seems to be a designed resemblance of the conception of Christ in the soul of a believer by the power of the same Holy Ghost.”

SoulSeemsChristPrinciplesGraceHolyBlessedBelieverScriptureGhostConceptionVirginsWombHoly GhostResemblanceConceiving
Book:The Works of President Edwards;: A treatise conserning religious affections. Christian cautions. A warning to professors. The final judgment. Sinners in Zion tenderly warned. The end of the wicked contemplated by the righteous
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“But yet it is evident that religion consists so much in affection, as that without holy affection there is no true religion; and no light in the understanding is good which does not produce holy affection in the heart: no habit or principle in the heart is good which has no such exercise; and no external fruit is good which does not proceed from such exercises.”

HeartDoeLightUnderstandingPrinciplesProduceHabitExerciseHolyFruitAffectionEvidentTrue Religion
Book:A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections: A Reprint from the Worcester Edition, Without Alteration, Mutilation, Or Omission
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“Immediately upon the fall, the mind of man shrank from its primitive greatness and expandedness, to an exceeding smallness and contractedness... Before, his soul was under the government of the noble principles of divine love, whereby it was enlarged to the comprehensiveness of all his fellow creatures and their welfare... [But] sin, like some powerful astringent, contracted his soul to the very small dimensions of selfishness, and God was forsaken, and man retired within himself, and became totally governed by narrow and selfish principles and feelings.”

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Author:Jonathan Edwards
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“Without the knowledge of the true number of the people, as a principle, the whole scope and use of keeping bills of birth and burials is impaired; wherefore by laborious conjectures and calculations to deduce the number of people from the births and burials, may be ingenious, but very preposterous.”

PeopleMayWholeUseNumbersPrinciplesBirthBillsScopeCalculationsIngeniousBurialConjecture
Book:The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty: Together with the Observations Upon the Bills of Mortality More Probably by John Graunt
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“The treatment of the indeterminacy principle as absolute and final can then be criticized as constituting an arbitrary restriction on scientific theories, since it does not follow from the quantum theory as such, but rather from the assumption of the unlimited validity of certain of its features, an assumption that can in no way ever be subjected to experimental proof.”

WayDoeScienceCertainPrinciplesTheoryAbsolutesFinalsProofFeaturesAssumptionTreatmentQuantumUnlimitedMechanicArbitraryRestrictionQuantum MechanicsValidityQuantum TheoryScientific Theory
Book:Causality and Chance in Modern Physics
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“Only by walking with God can we hope to find the path that leads to life. That is what it means to be a disciple. After all -- aren't we 'followers of Christ'? Then by all means, let's actually follow him. Not ideas about him. Not just his principles. Him.”

MeanIdeasChristPrinciplesPathWalkingFollowersDiscipleWalking With God
Book:Knowing the Heart of God: A Year of Devotional Readings to Help You Abide in Him
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“Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles, which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn.”

MenFirstsMeanEndsUseCareActionYoungTurnsPrinciplesYouthQuietDegreesDrawsHorseEmbraceErrorsExtremesPursueManageAcknowledgeYoung ManConsiderationRemedyInconvenience
Book:The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, Lord High Chancellor of England ...: With Several Additional Pieces, Never Before Printed in Any Edition of His Works. To which is Prefixed, a New Life of the Author
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“Let us hold fast the great truth, that communities are responsible, as well as individuals; that no government is respectable which is not just. Without unspotted purity of public faith, without sacred public principle, fidelity, and honor, no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society.”

GivingWellsGovernmentLawPoliticalIndividualCommunityPrinciplesHonorDignityResponsibleSacredPurityMachineryRespectableFidelityHold Fast
Book:The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster
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“From the accession of Henry the Seventh to the breaking out of the civil wars, England enjoyed much greater exemption from war, foreign and domestic, than for a long period before, and during the controversy between the houses of York and Lancaster. These years of peace were favorable to commerce and the arts. Commerce and the arts augmented general and individual knowledge; and knowledge is the only fountain, both of the love and the principles of human liberty.”

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Book:The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster
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