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Principles Quotes

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Principles Quotes

“One of the first principles of perseverance is to know when to stop persevering.”

Knows Firsts Principles Perseverance Stubbornness

Book:The Rest of My Life

Source: The Rest of My Life

“Parents fear the destruction of natural affection in their children. What is this natural principle so liable to decay? Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first. Why is not custom nature? I suspect that this nature itself is but a first custom, as custom is a second nature.”

Firsts Children Parent Natural Principles Habit Destruction Affection Suspects Customs Decay Liable

Book:Thoughts on religion, and other subjects

Source: Thoughts on religion, and other subjects

“Take nothing for granted as beautiful or ugly, but take every building to pieces, and challenge every feature. Learn to distinguish the curious from the beautiful. Get the habit of analysis - analysis will in time enable synthesis to become your habit of mind. 'Think simples' as my old master used to say - meaning to reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles.”

Source: Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings: 1930-1932

“It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm. It is quite necessary nevertheless to lay down such a principle.”

Should Firsts May Seems Principles Strange Sick Lays Harm Hospitals Nurse Nevertheless Requirements Nursing

Author:Florence Nightingale

“There is nothing as dangerous as an unembodied principle: no matter what blood flows, the principle comes first. The First Amendment absolutists operate precisely on unembodied principle.”

Firsts Matter Principles Blood Dangerous Flow No Matter What Amendments First Amendment Blood Flow

Author:Andrea Dworkin

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret.... It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know... that he was once a man like us.... Here, then, is eternal life - to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves... the same as all Gods have done before you.”

Knows Men Firsts Done Character Heaven Secret Principles Wise Eternal Certainty Eternal Life Exalted True God Character Of God

Author:Joseph Smith, Jr.

“it was the United States which first established general suffrage for men upon the two principles that 'taxation without representation is tyranny' and that governments to be just should 'derive their consent from the governed.' The unanswerable logic of these two principles is responsible for the extension of suffrage to men and women the world over. In the United States, however, women are still taxed without 'representation' and still live under a government to which they have given no 'consent.”

“One of the first principles of decorative art is that in all manufactures ornament must hold a place subordinate to that of utility; and when, by its exuberance, ornament interferes with utility, it is misplaced and vulgar.”

Firsts Art Principles Art Is Interfere Vulgar Utility Subordinates Ornaments Misplaced Exuberance

Author:George Mason

“If you do not assume the law of non-contradiction, you have nothing to argue about. If you do not assume the principles of sound reason, you have nothing to argue with. If you do not assume libertarian free will, you have no one to argue against. If you do not assume morality to be an objective commodity, you have no reason to argue in the first place.”

Ifs Firsts Reason Law Sound Principles Morality Assuming Libertarian Arguing Objectives Contradiction No Reason Free Will Commodity

Author:William J. Murray

“They say that there is no reality before it has been given shape by words rules regulations. They say that in what concerns them everything has to be remade starting from basic principles. They say that in the first place the vocabulary of every language is to be examined, modified, turned upside down, that every word must be screened.”

Firsts Has Beens Reality Language Given Principles Shapes Concern Starting Regulation Vocabulary Upside Down Basic Principles

Book:Les Guerilleres

Source: Les Guerilleres

“The first principle from which stems the moral of about all people at all time; it is summarized in this precept: Love thy neighbour as thyself, and: do as you would be done by.”

People Firsts Done Would Be Moral Principles All Time Stem Thyself Neighbour

Author:African Spir

“The first principle of aid is respect.”

Firsts Principles Aids

Author:Ernesto Sirolli

“The principle of collective leadership is elementary for a proletarian party and for a party of the Lenin type. Nevertheless, we must emphasize this old truth, because for about 20 years we have had practically no collective leadership; there flourished the cult of the individual which was condemned first by Marx and then by Lenin. And this, of course, could not but reflect negatively on the position of the party and its work.”

Years Firsts Courses Individual Party Principles Position Type Truth Is Collectives Nevertheless Cult

Author:Anastas Mikoyan

“Nature herself, as has been often said, requires that we should be able, not only to work well, but to use leisure well; for, as I must repeat once again, the first principle of all action is leisure. Both are required, but leisure is better than occupation and is its end.”

Should Firsts Wells Has Beens Said Ends Use Able Action Education Principles Repeats Occupation Leisure

Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

“Happiness is a thing honored and perfect. This seems to be borne out by the fact that it is a first principle or starting-point, since all other things that all men do are done for its sake; and that which is the first principle and cause of things good we agree to be something honorable and divine.”

Men Firsts Done Facts Seems Happiness Causes Perfect Principles Divine Agree Starting Sake Honorable Honored Starting Point

Author:Aristotle

“The soul has two parts, one rational and the other irrational. Let us now similarly divide the rational part, and let it be assumed that there are two rational faculties, one whereby we contemplate those things whose first principles are invariable, and one whereby we contemplate those things which admit of variation.”

Firsts Two Soul Principles Rational Faculty Divides Contemplating Irrational Variation

Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“Let them all believe whatever they want. It is pointless to go on radio shows and wrangle over mystical claims. However, such claims must not be imposed on captive children in government-owned schools. That is prohibited by the separation of church and state, a core principle in the First Amendment in America's Bill of Rights.”

“But the Lacedaemonians, who make it their first principle of action to serve their country's interest, know not any thing to be just or unjust by any measure but that.”

Knows Firsts Country Action Interest Principles Unjust

Book:Plutarch's Lives: The Translation Called Dryden's Corrected from the Greek

Source: Plutarch's Lives: The Translation Called Dryden's Corrected from the Greek

“Biology has tended to be an observational science and deriving things from first principles has not been possible in the past but I hate to predict the future on that.”

Firsts Past Hate Principles I Hate Biology

Author:Jeremiah P. Ostriker

“The first principle of all action is leisure.”

Firsts Action Principles Leisure

Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

“Now there cannot be first principles for men, unless the Divinity has revealed them; all the rest--beginning, middle, and end--isnothing but dreams and smoke.”

Men Firsts Ends God Dream Principles Knowledge Middle Smoke Divinity Beginning Middle And End

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“The House, being strong, should be generous ... but the constituents have a right to more than generosity.... The law gives me my seat. In the name of the law I ask for it. I regret that my personality overshadows the principles involved in this great struggle; but I would ask those who have touched my life, not knowing it, who have found for me vices which I do not remember in the memory of my life, I would ask them whether all can afford to cast the first stone ... then that, as best judges, they will vacate their own seats, having deprived my constituents of their right here to mine.”

“Reasoning is compared to understanding as movement is to rest, or acquisition to possession.... Since movement always proceeds from something immovable, and ends in something at rest, hence it is that human reasoning, in the order of inquiry and discovery, proceeds from certain things absolutely understood--namely, the first principles; and, again, in the order of judgment, returns by analysis to first principles, in the light of which it examines what it has found. Now it is clear that rest and movement are not to be referred to different powers, but to one and the same.”

Firsts Humans Different Ends Reason Light Certain Order Found Understanding Principles Clear Movement Return Judgment Understood Discovery Possession Analysis Reasoning Inquiry Acquisition

Author:Thomas Aquinas

“The soul, which is the first principle of life, is not a body, but the act of a body; just as heat, which is the principle of calefaction, is not a body, but an act of a body.”

Firsts Soul Body Life Is Principles Heat

Book:Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas: Volume One

Source: Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas: Volume One

“Men are not made religious by performing certain actions which are externally good, but they must first have righteous principles, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions.”

Men Firsts Made Action Certain Religion Evil Religious Principles Virtue Failing Failure Performing Righteous Virtuous

Author:Martin Luther

“Those peculiar social sensibilities nourished by our own peculiar political principles, while they enhance the true dignity of a prosperous American, do but minister to the added wretchedness of the unfortunate; first, by prohibiting their acceptance of what little random relief charity may offer; and, second, by furnishing them with the keenest appreciation of the smarting distinction between their ideal of universal equality and their grind-stone experience of the practical misery and infamy of poverty.”

Source: The Encantadas and Other Stories

“There is a conceptual depth as well as a purely visual depth. The first is discovered by science; the second is revealed in art. The first aids us in understanding the reasons of things; the second in seeing their forms. In science we try to trace phenomena back to their first causes, and to general laws and principles. In art we are absorbed in their immediate appearance, and we enjoy this appearance to the fullest extent in all its richness and variety. Here we are not concerned with the uniformity of laws but with the multiformity and diversity of intuitions.”

Trying Firsts Wells Art Reason Form Law Science Causes Enjoy Understanding Principles Seeing Diversity Concerned Depth Appearance Intuition Aids Variety Visuals Richness Uniformity

Author:Ernst Cassirer

“I think first and foremost everybody should understand that Canadians are strongly committed to the system of universal health insurance, to the principle that your ability to pay does not determine your access to critical medical service.”

Thinking Should Firsts Doe Ability Pay Principles Universal Determine Committed Critical Access Medical

Author:Stephen Harper

“For an American to be patriotic is to be loyal to the principles of our Constitution, and the First Amendment. The truth is that the policies of the government is sometimes in conflict with that. In our country, patriotism should not be defined as obedience to an authority.”

Should Firsts Country Sometimes Government Principles Policy Truth Is Conflict Authority Constitution Our Country Defined Obedience Patriotic Loyal Amendments First Amendment

Author:Daniel Ellsberg

“The weak and misbegotten shall perish: first principle of our brotherly love. And they shall be given every assistance.”

Firsts Given Principles Weakness Weak Assistance Fellowship Brotherly Brotherly Love

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“Enthusiastic Admiration is the first Principle of Knowledge and its last.”

Firsts Lasts Principles Admiration Enthusiastic

Book:William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose

Source: William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose

“The first principle of solid wisdom is discretion, without it all the erudition of life is merely bagatelle.”

Firsts Wisdom Life Is Principles Discretion Erudition

Author:Norm MacDonald

“We start with first principles. The Constitution creates a Federal Government of enumerated powers.”

Firsts Government Principles Power Constitution Federal Government

Author:William Rehnquist

“I study much, and the more I study, the oftener I go back to those first principles which are so simple that childhood itself can lisp them.”

Firsts Simple Principles Study Childhood Lisp

Author:Sophie Swetchine

“It is impossible that there should be so much providence in the last details, and none in the first principles. Then the arts of prophecy and of healing, which are part of the cosmos, come of the good providence of the Gods.”

Should Firsts Art Lasts Healing Principles Impossible Details Cosmos Providence Prophecy

Author:Sallust

“As children of God, knowing of His great love and His ultimate knowledge of what is best for our eternal welfare, we trust in Him. The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith means trust.”

Firsts Mean Children Jesus Christ Lord Principles Knowing Eternal Jesus Christ Ultimate Welfare God Knows Great Love Child Of God Lord Jesus Christ

Author:Dallin H. Oaks

“You cannot hurt animals, so what do I do? I kill the dog first. Then I do it with the boy. You're not supposed to break the illusion of this being a film, so I make the actor talk to the audience. Provocation is the principle of the whole film [ Funny Games]. It is very ironic.”

Firsts Whole Film Actors Games Hurt Animal Boys Principles Break Audience Dog Illusion Ironic Provocation Funny Game

Author:Michael Haneke

“Through the years, I have discovered some essential principles in discerning God's will: First, by God's grace, we must be firmly committed to seeking first the Kingdom of God and His glory. Secondly, we must establish a life discipline of renewing our minds in the Word of God. Thirdly, we must seek godly counsel from mature believers. Fourthly, we must watch for signs of God's providence opening doors and closing them. Finally, we should consider the desires of our heart.”

“The basis of self-ownership is the fact that each person has direct control over the scarce resource of his body and therefore has a better claim to it than any third party (and any third party seeking to dispute my self-ownership must presuppose the principle of self-ownership in the first place since he is acting as a self-owner).”

Firsts Persons Self Facts Body Party Acting Principles Resources Direct Thirds Bases Claims Seeking Owners Ownership Disputes Scarce Third Parties Scarce Resources Self Ownership

Author:Stephan Kinsella

“The works of nature and the works of revelation display religion to mankind in characters so large and visible that those who are not quite blind may in them see and read the first principles and most necessary parts of it and from thence penet into those infinite depths filled with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Firsts May Character Religion Principles Mankind Infinite Blind Filled Depth Treasure Visible Revelations Display Knowledge And Wisdom

Author:John Locke

“Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou.”

Knows Men Firsts Character Action Principles Thee Rely Incapable Thyself Rely Upon

Author:Akhenaton

“Wonder... and not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.”

Firsts Philosophy Wonder Principles Knowledge Study Mankind Expectations Discovery Advantage Connections Lays Various Appearance Concealed Prompts

Author:Adam Smith

“In every principle presented to us, our first inquiry should be, "Is it true?" "Does it emanate from God?" If he is its Author it can be sustained just as much as any other truth in natural philosophy; if false it should be opposed and exposed just as much as any other error.”

Ifs Should Firsts Doe Philosophy Truth Natural Principles Errors Exposed Inquiry Emanate Natural Philosophy

Author:John Taylor

“Unless we take care to clear the first principles of knowledge from the incumbrance and delusion of words, we may make infinite reasonings upon them to no purpose. We may deduce consequences, and never be the wiser.”

Firsts May Care Purpose Principles Clear Consequence Infinite Take Care Reasoning Delusion Wiser

Book:Berkeley

Source: Berkeley

“You are to think of yourself as only existing in this world to do God's will. To think that you are your own is as absurd as to think you are self-created. It is an obvious first principle that you belong completely to God.”

Thinking World Firsts Self Christian Religious Principles This World Obvious Gods Will Absurd Think Of You

Author:William Law

“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.”

Firsts May Artist Principles Effects Movement Particular Succeed Machines Complexes Wheels Fewer Employed

Book:The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master

Source: The Essays on Philosophical Subjects: the Great Master

“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.”

“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.”

Source: 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

“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. Perhaps, at first, prejudice, habit, shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors.”

Source: The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila

“No science ever defends its first principles.”

Firsts Principles

Author:Aristotle