Home / Topics / Principles Quotes

Principles Quotes

Browse 6342 quotes about Principles.

Principles Quotes

“Unbounded morality ultimately becomes counterproductive even in terms of the same moral principles being sought. The law of diminishing returns applies to morality.”

Law Term Moral Principles Return Morality Moral Principles Counterproductive Diminishing Returns

Book:Knowledge And Decisions

Source: Knowledge And Decisions

“If these precedents are to stand unimpeached, and to provide sanctions for the continued conduct of America affairs-the Constitution may be nullified by the President and officers who have taken the oath and are under moral obligation to uphold it....they may substitute personal and arbitrary government-the first principle of the totalitarian system against which it has been alleged that World War II was waged-while giving lip service to the principle of constitutional government.”

“Physical beauty is the sign of an interior beauty, a spiritual and moral beauty which is the basis, the principle, and the unity of the beautiful.”

Beautiful Spiritual Beauty Moral Principles Bases Unity Interiors Physical Beauty

Book:Aesthetical Essays of Schiller: Top Classic of German

Source: Aesthetical Essays of Schiller: Top Classic of German

“No great, inspiring culture of the future can be built upon the moral principle of relativism. For at its bottom such a culture holds that nothing is better than anything else, and that all things are in themselves equally meaningless. Except for the fragments of faith (in progress, in compassion, in conscience, in hope) to which it still clings, illegitimately, such a culture teaches every one of its children that life is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.”

Children Stills Life Is Culture Compassion Moral Principles Teach Progress Conscience Built All Things Bottom Tales Idiot Meaningless Fragments Relativism Moral Principles Signifying

Author:Michael Novak

“I highly venerate the Masonic Institution, under the fullest persuasion that, when its principles are acknowledged and its laws and precepts obeyed, it comes nearest to the Christian religion, in its moral effects and influence, of any institution with which I am acquainted.”

Christian Law Moral Principles Influence Effects Institutions Persuasion Masonic

Author:Theodore Roosevelt

“There can be no truly moral choice unless that choice is made in freedom; similarly, there can be no really firmly grounded and consistent defense of freedom unless that defense is rooted in moral principle.”

Made Choices Liberty Moral Principles Defense Consistent Rooted Grounded Moral Principles Moral Choices

Author:Murray Rothbard

“Highfalutin moral principles are impossible guides to foreign policy. At worst, they reflect hypocrisy; at best, extreme naivete.”

Moral Principles Impossible Worst Policy Extremes Guides Hypocrisy Foreign Policy Moral Principles Naivete

Author:Charles Krauthammer

“I mean that it is more natural for me to be wicked than virtuous, when I do a bad act, and I've done many, I never feel wither shame, remorse or fear, I sometimes wish it was not necessary as I don't like the trouble, but as for any moral sense of principle, I haven't a particle. Many people are like me as actions prove, but they are not so frank in owning it and insist on keeping up the humbug of virtue.”

People Feels Mean Sometimes Done Action Wish Natural Moral Principles Virtue Trouble Havens Prove Shame Like Me Wicked Frank Virtuous Remorse Particles Humbug Owning It

Author:Louisa May Alcott

“The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the approach of freedom. That the fall of slavery is predetermined in the counsels of Omnipotence I cannot doubt; it is a part of the great moral improvement in the condition of man, attested by all the records of history. But the conflict will be terrible, and the progress of improvement perhaps retrograde before its final progress to consummation.”

Source: Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848

“Just as man as a social being, cannot in the long run exist without a tie to the community, so the individual will never find the real justification for his existence, and his own spiritual and moral autonomy, anywhere except in an extramundane principle capable of relativizing the overpowering influence of external factors.”

Source: The Undiscovered Self

“When we assume God to be a guiding principle well, sure enough, a god is usually characteristic of a certain system of thought or morality. For instance, take the Christian God, the summum bonum: God is love, love being the highest moral principle; and God is spirit, the spirit being the supreme idea of meaning. All our Christian moral concepts derive from such assumptions, and the supreme essence of all of them is what we call God.”

“Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that every human being receives his best moral training, or his worst; for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life.”

Firsts Humans Important Character Home School Human Beings Moral Principles Worst Training Endure Cease Manhood

Book:Character

Source: Character

“I am convinced that the moment is coming when, with its message of eternal, universal values, it will come to the aid of our society. For in these words: "Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," lie those very moral principles that will enable us to survive even the most critical situations.”

Moments Lying Values Situation Moral Principles Eternal Messages Universal Critical Convinced Aids Neighbor Our Society Thyself Moral Principles Love Thy Neighbor

Author:Boris Yeltsin

“It is paltry philosophy if in the old-fashioned way one lays down rules and principles in total disregard of moral values . As soon as these appear one regards them as exceptions, which gives them a certain scientific status, and thus makes them into rules. Or again one may appeal to genius , which is above all rules; which amounts to admitting that rules are not only made for idiots , but are idiotic in themselves.”

Ifs Way Giving May Made Philosophy Certain Values Moral Principles Amount Genius Regard Lays Appeals Idiot Exception Old Fashioned Disregard Admitting Idiotic Moral Values

Book:On War

Source: On War

“Because of lack of moral principle, human life becomes worthless. Moral principle, truthfulness, is a key factor. If we lose that, then there is no future.”

Ifs Humans Loses Moral Principles Keys Factors Human Life Worthless Truthfulness Moral Principles

Author:Dalai Lama

“The idea of duty, that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self, is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life. No man can begin to mould himself on a faith or an idea without rising to a higher order of experience: a principle of subordination, of self-mastery, has been introduced into his nature; he is no longer a mere bundle of impressions, desires, and impulses.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)

“There can be no compromise on basic principles. There can be no compromise on moral issues. There can be no compromise on matters of knowledge, of truth, of rational conviction.”

Matter Truth Moral Principles Knowledge Issues Honor Integrity Conviction Rational Compromise Basic Principles Objectivism Moral Issues No Compromise Never Compromise

Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z

Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z

“Society is organized on the principle that any individual who possesses certain social characteristics has a moral right to expect that others will value and treat him in an appropriate way.”

Way Certain Values Individual Social Moral Principles Treats Characteristics Organized Appropriate

Author:Erving Goffman

“Is it stupidity or is it moral cowardice which leads men to continue professing a creed that makes self-sacrifice a cardinal principle, while they urge the sacrificing of others, even to the death, when they trespass against us? Is it blindness, or is it an insance inconsistency, which makes them regard as most admirable the bearing of evil for the benefit of others, while they lavish admiration on those who, out of revenge, inflict great evils in return for small ones suffered? Surely our barbarian code of right needs revision, and our barbarian standard of honour should be somewhat changed.”

Source: Works: The study of sociology

“By consequence I hold that no one ever did, or can do, anything for "society."... Comte invented the term altruism as an antonym for egoism, and it found its way at once into everyone's mouth, although it is utterly devoid of meaning, since it points to nothing that ever existed in mankind; This hybrid or rather this degenerate form of hedonism served powerfully to invest collectivism's principles with a specious moral sanction, and collectivists naturally made the most of it.”

Way Made Form Found Term Can Do Moral Principles Mankind Mouths Consequence Altruism Sanctions Egoism Collectivism Degenerates Hybrid Hedonism

Author:Albert J. Nock

“In this world laws are written for the lofty aim of "the common good" and then acted out in life on the basis of the common greed. In this world irrationality clings to man like his shadow so that the right things get done for the wrong reasons - afterwards, we dredge up the right reasons for justification. It is a world not of angels but of angles, where men speak of moral principles but act on power principles; a world where we are always moral and our enemies always immoral; a world where "reconciliation" means that when one side gets the power and the other side gets reconciled to it.”

“The most important form of incremental change is the decision by the individual to become vegan. Veganism, or the eschewing of all animal products, is more than a matter of diet or lifestyle; it is a political and moral statement in which the individual accepts the principle of abolition in her own life. Veganism is the one truly abolitionist goal that we can all achieve - and we can achieve it immediately, starting with our next meal.”

“That's all very well as an abstract moral principle, Avril, a coffee-table theoretical construct, but there's no denying the sheer gratuitous pleasure to be derived from seeing members of the ruling class in pain and torment.”

Wells Pain Pleasure Moral Class Principles Seeing Members Tables Coffee Abstract Sheer Constructs Torment Ruling Theoretical Moral Principles

Book:The Acid House

Source: The Acid House

“If the subjectivist view hold true, thinking cannot be of any help in determining the desirability of any goal in itself. The acceptability of ideals, the criteria for our actions and beliefs, the leading principles of ethics and politics, all our ultimate decisions are made to depend upon factors other than reason. They are supposed to be matters of choice and predilection, and it has become meaningless to speak of truth in making practical, moral or esthetic decisions.”

“If by sticking to the moral principles you have followed all your life, you jeopardize your happiness and that of others, throw over your principles. Principles for principles' sake -that is not wisdom; that is obstinacy. Principles should be fluid because life is fluid.”

Ifs Should Life Is Moral Principles Sake Over You Fluid Moral Principles Obstinacy Jeopardize

Author:Epifanio de los Santos

“A party should be founded not merely on numbers, but on moral principles, without which it can neither accomplish useful work nor inspire confidence.”

Should Party Numbers Moral Principles Inspire Accomplish Moral Principles

Author:Eleftherios Venizelos

“This is the very heart of true morality--not to struggle, not to fight with any weapons, for one's self alone--but to struggle and to fight for the common interest, to wield the power of brain and good right arm if need be for one's family, for the ordered community of life, for the state, for moral principles, humanity, and the common good.”

Ifs Needs Heart Self States Humanity Fighting Interest Community Common Brain Moral Principles Struggle Arms Morality Weapons Common Good Moral Principles Common Interests

Author:Joseph Alexander Leighton

“Darwinism undermined traditional morality and the value of human life. Then, evolutionary progress became the new moral imperative. This aided the advance of eugenics, which was overtly founded on Darwinian principles. Some eugenicists began advocating euthanasia and infanticide for the disabled. On a parallel track, some prominent Darwinists argued that human racial competition and war is part of the Darwinian struggle for existence. Hitler imbibed these social Darwinist ideas, blended in virulent anti-Semitism, and--there you have it: Holocaust”

“I am a stronger follower of Veganism by principle, not just because of moral and aesthetic reasons. I truly believe in a Vegetarian lifestyle and I have faith and hopes in change in human destiny, thanks to the physical effects and benefits of a healthier diet and its influence on the character of the people. It will bring about some benefit and improvement to human society.”

“If the men of the Middle Ages... lived in filth and discomfort, it was not for any lack of ability to change their mode of life; it was because they chose to live this way, because filth and discomfort fitted in with their principles and prejudices, political, moral, and religious.... It was in the power of medieval... craftsmen to create armchairs and sofas that might have rivaled in comfort those of today”

Ifs Men Way Might Age Today Political Religious Ability Moral Principles Middle He Man Comfort Prejudice Middle Ages Discomfort Medieval Filth Sofas Craftsman Armchairs Ability To Change

Author:Aldous Huxley

“The moral decisions of others should be treated with respect, as long as such decisions do not conflict with the principle of tolerance.”

Should Long Decision Moral Principles Atheism Conflict Positive Atheism Tolerance Treated Moral Decisions

Author:Karl Popper

“True leadership is moral authority, not formal authority. Leadership is a choice, not a position. The choice is to follow universal timeless principles, which will build trust and respect from the entire organization. Those with formal authority alone will lose this trust and respect.”

Choices Loses Moral Principles Position Authority Organization Universal Formal Timeless True Leader True Leadership Moral Authority Trust And Respect

Author:Stephen Covey

“As human beings we are all the same. We have this marvelous intelligence, which sometimes creates problems for us, but when influenced by warm-heartedness can be very constructive. In this context we need to appreciate the value of having moral principles.”

Needs Humans Sometimes Problem Values Human Beings Moral Principles Appreciate Intelligence Warm Marvelous Constructive Sameness Moral Principles Most Meaningful Learn To Appreciate

Author:Dalai Lama

“What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.”

World Want May Choices Moral Principles Greater Nice Failing Share Talent Succeed Invention Enterprise Being Nice Moral Principles Dexterity

Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt

Source: The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt

“Great revolutions are the work rather of principles than of bayonets, and are achieved first in the moral, and afterwards in the material sphere.”

Firsts Moral Principles Materials Revolution Spheres Bayonets

Book:Joseph Mazzini His Life, Writings, and Political Principles

Source: Joseph Mazzini His Life, Writings, and Political Principles

“As the grand discordant harmony of the celestial bodies may be explained by the simple principles of gravity and impulse, so also in that more wonderful and complicated microcosm, the heart of man, all the phenomena of morals are perhaps resolvable into one single principle, the pursuit of apparent good; for although customs universally vary, yet man in all climates and countries is essentially the same.”

Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think

“Some of the domestic evils of drunkenness are houses without windows, gardens without fences, fields without tillage, barns without roofs, children without clothing, principles, morals or manners.”

Children Evil House Moral Principles Fields Garden Window Manners Clothings Roof Fence Drunkenness Barns

Author:Benjamin Franklin

“It is certain that the soul is either mortal or immortal. The decision of this question must make a total difference in the principles of morals. Yet philosophers have arranged their moral system entirely independent of this. What an extraordinary blindness!”

Soul Certain Differences Decision Moral Principles Independent Extraordinary Philosopher Mortals Immortal Blindness

Book:Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects

Source: Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects

“Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.”

Political Differences Moral Principles Depends Disagreement Moral Principles Political Differences

Author:Lord Acton

“The moral government of God is a movement in a line onwards towards some grand consummation, in which the principles, indeed, are ever the same, but the developments are always new - in which, therefore, no experience of the past can indicate with certainty what new openings of truth, what hew manifestations of goodness, what new phases of the moral heaven may appear.”

May God Government Past Heaven Lines Moral Principles Movement Development Goodness Opening Certainty Manifestation Phases

Author:Mark Hopkins

“Some level of truthfulness has always been seen as essential to human society, no matter how deficient the observance of other moral principles.”

Humans Matter Truth Levels Moral Principles Essentials Truthfulness Human Society Moral Principles Observance

Book:Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life

Source: Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life

“I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.”

Knows Writing Suffering Moral Principles Reader Moral Principles

Book:The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

“The concept of absolute, hence (or whence) springs, in the moral field, the moral laws or norms, represent, in the field of knowledge, the principle of identity, which is the fundamental law of the thought; norms of logic springs from it, that govern the thought (or mind) in the field of science." ("Le concept de l'absolu, d'où découlent, dans le domaine moral, les lois ou normes morales, constitue, le principe d'identité, qui est la loi fondamentale de la pensée; il en découle les normes logiques qui régissent la pensée dans le domaine de la science.")”

Mind Law Moral Principles Fields Identity Spring Concepts Logic Absolutes Fundamentals Pens Norm Morale Moral Law

Author:African Spir

“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

“In ancient times, any man rising up above the common people tried to shape his life according to his principles; it is no longer like than now; it is (because) for the ancients, moral was a principle of inner life, whereas in our days, most of the time one is content to adhere to an official moral, that we recognize in theory, but that one does not care to put into practice.”

People Men Doe Care Common Moral Principles Practice Theory Shapes Ancient Officials Rising Inner Life Ancient Times Rising Up

Author:African Spir

“The distinction between right and wrong ("la distinction du bien et du mal", Fr.), is nothing else than their unyielding (or implacable) opposition; thus the moral consciousness is an innate and intimate revelation of the absolute, which goes beyond (or goes pass, or exceed) every empirical data (or given information). It is only on these principles that we will be able to establish ("pourront être édifiées", Fr.) the real basis of morality.”

Real Able Given Consciousness Moral Principles Information Morality Bases Absolutes Data Intimate Revelations Distinction Opposition Innate Exceed Unyielding

Author:African Spir

“[the virtues] cannot exist without Prudence. A proof of this is that everyone, even at the present day, in defining Virtue, after saying what disposition it is [i.e. moral virtue] and specifying the things with which it is concerned, adds that it is a disposition determined by the right principle; and the right principle is the principle determined by Prudence.”

Moral Principles Virtue Concerned Add Determined Proof Disposition Prudence Defining Present Day Moral Virtues

Author:Aristotle

“Right and wrong as moral principles do not change. They are applicable and reliable determinants whether the situations with which we deal are simple or complicated. There is always a right and wrong to every question which requires our solution.”

Simple Deals Situation Moral Principles Solutions Complicated Moral Principles

Book:An enemy hath done this

Source: An enemy hath done this

“There is indeed something deeply wrong with a person who lacks principles, who has no moral core. There are, likewise, certainly values that brook no compromise, and I would count among them integrity, fairness, and the avoidance of cruelty. But I have never accepted the argument that principle is compromised by judging each situation on its own merits, with due appreciation of the idiosyncrasy of human motivation and fallibility.”

“Placing the state in charge of moral principles is equivalent to putting the proverbial fox in charge of the chicken coop.”

States Moral Principles Chickens Foxes Moral Principles Proverbial

Author:Murray Rothbard