Principled Quotes

• Obey the principles without being bound by them.

  Bruce Lee

  Principles, Martial Arts, Martial Artist

  Bruce Lee (2015). “Bruce Lee: Artist of Life”, p.121, Tuttle Publishing

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• Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

  Mark Twain

  Integrity, Real, Carpe Diem

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.17, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.

  Paul Theroux

  Lonely, Expensive

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• Too often people enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought, never taking a principled stand. True justice will never come until those who are not injured are just as indignant as those who are

  Kweisi Mfume

  People, Justice, Comfort

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• I wish I had been wiser. I wish I had been more effective, I wish I'd been more unifying, I wish I'd been more principled.

  Bill Ayers

  Wish, Wiser, Unifying

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• Politics is a contest among people of diverse backgrounds and philosophies, advocating different solutions to common problems. The system only works when principled, energetic people participate.

  Bob Ehrlich

  Philosophy, People, Different

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• Hopefully, at some point, people will at least credit the Republicans with carrying out their oversight responsibilities and with pursuing a principled course of action even in the face of everyone's short-attention spans.

  Barbara Olson

  Responsibility, People, Attention

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• I believe that this is the key, the principle itself is the key to conservatism. Because in many ways if you do not have a principled base you do not have policy and if you do not have policy in many ways you do not have an ideology.

  Jonathan Krohn

  Believe, Keys, Principles

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• Voters are hungry for principled, conservative fighters - because the threat to our liberties from Washington never has been greater.

  Ted Cruz

  Liberty, Voters, Conservative

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• But my dad also was a remarkable man, a good person, a principled individual, a man of integrity.

  Sidney Poitier

  Dad, Integrity, Men

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• Why are some people highly principled and willing to do anything for their principles, while most of us are not? And I am willing to not only ask, but also answer the question.

  David Bezmozgis

  People, Principles, Answers

  The Believer interview, logger.believermag.com. September 23, 2014.

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• The worst thing you want is a willy-nilly judge who is swayed by the political whims of the era or the time. What you want is a judge who is thinking about what he or she is doing and is thinking about it in a principled way.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Thinking, Judging, Political

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• In Holland I have seen well-meaning, principled people blinded by multiculturalism, overwhelmed by the imperative to be sensitive and respectful of immigrant culture, while ignoring criminal abuse of women and girls.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Girl, People, Abuse

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• All Americans and freedom-loving people around the world owe President Reagan our deepest gratitude for his strong, principled leadership that ended the Cold War and brought freedom to millions of people.

  Jim Ramstad

  Leadership, Gratitude, Strong

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• I trust Cuba as a principled country. Cuba's strength is that it has been steadfast in its commitment to the principles of liberation, freedom, of resistance to the kind of institutionalized terrorism that the United States government does every day.

  Assata Shakur

  Country, Commitment, Government

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• They may then be willing to cast principled votes based on an educated understanding of the public interest in the face of polls suggesting that the public itself may have quite a different understanding of where its interest lies.

  James L. Buckley

  Lying, Understanding, Different

  James L. Buckley (2010). “Freedom at Risk: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State”, p.247, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• As long as I sit at Henry Clay's desk, I will remember his lifelong desire to forge agreement, but I will also keep close to my heart the principled stand of his cousin, Cassius Clay, who refused to forsake the life of any human, simply to find agreement.

  Rand Paul

  Cousin, Heart, Agreement

  "Rand Paul Speaks of Slavery, Spending and Compromise in First Senate Speech" by Wes Barrett, www.foxnews.com. February 02, 2011.

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• If Ralph Nader runs, President Bush is going to be re-elected, and if Ralph Nader doesn't run, President Bush is going to be re-elected. We're going to run on the president's strong and principled leadership and his positive agenda for a second term.

  Ed Gillespie

  Leadership, Running, Strong

  "Nader to run for president as independent", www.cnn.com. February 22, 2004.

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• So I think that our foreign policy, the president's strong and principled leadership when it comes to the war against terror and foreign policy is going to be an asset.

  Ed Gillespie

  Leadership, Strong, War

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• The corporate sector per se is bottom-line oriented. It can be very corrupt and it is not very principled. That is why I don't think it is sufficient just to have voluntary codes of behavior. I am in favor of legislation which helps to ensure that there is an even playing field and rewards those who play by the rules.

  Mary Robinson

  Thinking, Play, Lines

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

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• Principles do not mainly influence even the principled; we talk on principle, but we act on interest.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Principles, Ethics, Morality

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “The Works of Walter Savage Landor”, p.215

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• The place resembled a new model prison, or one that had achieved a provisional utopia after principled revolt, or maybe a homeless shelter for people with liberal arts degrees. The cages brought to mind those labs with their death-fuming vents near my college studio. These kids were part of some great experiment. It was maybe the same one in which I'd once been a subject. Unlike me, though, or the guinea pigs and hares, they were happy, or seemed happy, or were blogging about how they seemed happy.

  Sam Lipsyte

  Art, Kids, College

  Sam Lipsyte (2010). “The Ask: A Novel”, p.187, Macmillan

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• 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.

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter

  Beautiful, Hard Work, Helping Others

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter (2007). “America the Principled: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again”, p.8, Crown Business

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• Here you had John McCain and Lindsey Graham in a very principled way standing up and defending Barack Obama. You had people like Gene Robinson and a lot of other liberals, who said, and this I personally agree with, however flawed Rand Paul was as a messenger, we need a debate about this. The administration has not been forthcoming enough about its drone policy.

  E. J. Dionne

  People, Drones, Needs

  "Week In Politics: Unemployment, Rand Paul's Filibuster". "All Things Considered" with Melissa Block, www.npr.org. March 8, 2013.

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• It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle.

  Tom DeLay

  Self, Political, Principles

  Farewell Address to House of Representatives, delivered 8 June 2006

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