We speak of being anchored to our principles. But if the weather turns nasty you up with an anchor and let it down where there's less wind, and the fishings better.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.

False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations.

Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages.

Men of principle are sure to be bold, but those who are bold may not always be men of principle.

One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.

General principles are not the less true or important because from their nature they elude immediate observation; they are like the air, which is not the less necessary because we neither see nor feel it.

Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.

Everywhere the basis of principle is tradition.