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Principles Quotes

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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

“In Critical and baffling situations, it is always best to return to first principle and simple action”

Firsts Action Simple Situation Principles Military Return Critical

Author:Winston Churchill

“We must recognise the essential underlaying savagery in the animal called man, and return to older and sounder principles of national life and defense. We must realise that man's nature will remain the same so long as he remains man; that civilisation is but a slight coverlet beneath which the dominant beast sleeps lightly and ever ready to awake.”

Men Long Sleep Animal Principles Ready Return Essentials Remains Defense Awake Beast Realising Dominant Recognise Civilisation Savagery Sounder

Book:Delphi Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft (Illustrated)

“An idea is growing in foreign policy circles in Washington ... that there is no turning back. We are stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan for 25 to 40 years, we are embedded in our prideful unilateralism, and nothing can return us to more traditional American values and principles of action. The hubristic creators of this "inevitability" planned it this way. ... Their failures in Iraq have not stopped the fanatic, power-hungry neoconservatives. ... The hard-liners who dominate this administration ... have led us to eternal conflict with Muslims.”

“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

“America can restore its strengths as the world-respected land of opportunity by returning to open-society principles. An open society invests in people and new ideas, rewards talent and hard work, values dialogue and learns from dissent, operates to high standards with transparent information, looks for common ground, sees problems as opportunities for creative change, and encourages those who are fortunate to help others get the same chance, because service is the highest ideal. With such standards in mind, America the Beautiful can return to its admired role as America the Principled.”

Source: America the Principled: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again

“What does purpose mean? It means the deepest desire for our short lives to mean something. . . . To speak a language of purpose is to return to first principles and to be able to answer, in plain English, the plain questions of Why? Why should we chip in to help someone else? Why should we defer gratification? Why should we care about the long term? Why should we trust anyone who seems to be limiting our ability to do what we want?”

Want Should Firsts Mean Long Doe Helping Seems Care Able Desire Purpose Speak Language Term Ability Answers Principles Return Intention Long Term Chips Gratification Short Life Plain English

Author:Eric Liu

“The data stream has been corrupted, return to first principles.”

Firsts Has Beens Principles Return Data Streams

Author:Terence McKenna

“Within ten days thou wilt seem a god to those to whom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou wilt return to thy principles and the worship of reason.”

Ifs Art Reason Seems Principles Atheism Return Ten Worship Beast Apes

Book:Meditations

Source: Meditations

“The natural principle of sowing and reaping is always at work. Whatever you plant , whether physical, spiritual, mental, financial, relational, or emotional, will grow and someday return to you in a multiplied fashion. It can be incredibly good or terribly bad, depending on your seed.”

Spiritual Grows Natural Principles Fashion Emotional Return Plant Financial Seeds Someday Sowing

Author:Paul J. Meyer

“Madness is consistent; which is more than can be said for poor reason. Whatever may be the ruling passion at the time continues equally so throughout the whole delirium, though it should last for life. Madmen are always constant in love; which no man in his senses ever was. Our passions and principles are steady in frenzy; but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason.”

Men Should May Said Reason Whole Lasts Passion Poor Principles Return Madness Constant Senses Consistent Steady Ruling Madmen Frenzy Delirium Ruling Passion

Book:The Posthumous Works of Laurence Sterne: ...

Source: The Posthumous Works of Laurence Sterne: ...

“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

“Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our time, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment in the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the honest workingman.”

Men House Principles Greater Honest Return Exercise Glory Training Trade Killing Shoes Our Time Guarantees Justify Clothings Patriot Equipment Murderer Wholesale Anti Patriotism

Book:Living My Life

Source: Living My Life