Edmund Burke - Thomas Jefferson - Richard P Feynman - Oliver Wendell Holmes - Made in Dagenham 2010 - Abraham Lincoln - Groucho Marx - Citizen Kane 1941 - W Somerset Maugham - Dwight D Eisenhower - Christopher Hitchens - Thomas Paine - Marquis de Sade - Mark Twain - Oscar Wilde - James Russell Lowell - Henry Bolingbroke - Leo Tolstoy - Noam Chomsky - Cambridge Spies 2003 - Parker 2013 -
Kings will be tyrants from policy when subjects are rebels from principle. Edmund Burke
Conquest is not in our principles; it is inconsistent with our government. Thomas Jefferson
If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest. Thomas Jefferson
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. Richard P Feynman
A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles. Oliver Wendell Holmes
To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man. Oliver Wendell Holmes
‘It was a matter of principle. You had to stand up and do what was right otherwise you wouldn’t be able to look yourself in the mirror ... When did we in this country decide to stop fighting? ... We are the working classes, the men and the women ... Equal pay for women is right.’ Made in Dagenham 2010 starring Bob Hoskins & Miranda Richardson & Sally Hawkins & Geraldine James & Rosamund Pike & Andrea Riseborough & Jaime Winstone & Daniel Mays & Richard Schiff & Phil Cornwell et al, director Nigel Cole, Rita at conference
If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it. Abraham Lincoln
Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them – well, I have others. Groucho Marx
Declaration of Principles. Citizen Kane 1941 starring Orson Welles & Joseph Cotten & Dorothy Comingore & Everett Sloane & Ray Collins & George Coulouris & Agnes Moorehead & Paul Stewart & Ruth Warrick & Erskine Sanford & William Alland et al, director Orson Welles
The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency. W Somerset Maugham
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Dwight D Eisenhower
Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake. Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ’Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. Thomas Paine
An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. Thomas Paine
All universal moral principles are idle fancies. Marquis de Sade
Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed. Mark Twain
We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles. Mark Twain
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world. Oscar Wilde
I don’t believe in princerple,
But, oh, I du in interest. James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers VI:9 1848
Ez to my princerples, I glory
In hevin’ nothin’ o’ the sort. ibid.
Patriotism must be founded on great principles and supported by great virtue. Henry Bolingbroke
Vronsky’s life was particularly happy in that he had a code of principles, which defined with unfailing certitude what he ought and what he ought not to do. This code of principles covered only a very small circle of contingencies, but then the principles were never doubtful, and Vronsky, as he never went outside that circle, had never had a moment’s hesitation about doing what he ought to do. These principles laid down as invariable rules: that one must pay a cardsharper, but need not pay a tailor; that one must never tell a lie to a man, but one may to a woman; that one must never cheat anyone, but one may a husband; that one must never pardon an insult, but one may give one and so on. These principles were possibly not reasonable and not good, but they were of unfailing certainty, and so long as he adhered to them, Vronsky felt that his heart was at peace and he could hold his head up. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
The guiding principles and facing the consequences: fomenting terror, crashing our own economy, inspiring hatred among oppressed populations that sooner or later are likely to explode. Noam Chomsky, lecture University of Tennessee 25th January 2011
The ten principles of the concentration of wealth and power: Concentration of wealth yields concentration of power … (1) Reduce Democracy; (2) Shape Ideology; (3) Redesign the Economy; (4) Shift the Burden; (5) Attack Solidarity; (6) Run the Regulators; (7) Engineer Elections; (8) Keep the Rabble in Line; (9) Manufacture Consent; (10) Marginalize the Population. Noam Chomsky, Requiem for the American Dream, F-Movies 2017
You can’t live without principles. No-one can. Cambridge Spies I II III IV, Philby, BBC 2003
It’s the principle … Terms on both sides have to be honoured. Parker 2013 starring Jason Statham & Jennifer Lopez & Michael Chiklis & Wendell Pierce & Clifton Collins & Bobby Cannavale & Patti LuPone & Carlos Carrasco & Micah Hauptman & Emma Booth & Nick Nolte et al, director Taylor Hackford