Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
Abraham Lincoln

I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
Oscar Wilde

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

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
Thomas Jefferson

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.
Leonardo da Vinci

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Obey the principles without being bound by them.
Bruce Lee

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

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.
Margaret Thatcher

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.
Barack Obama

The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.
Plato

I think Bible principles are principles for life.
Joel Osteen

I try to speak in everyday language. I feel like God has gifted me to take Bible principles and make them practical.
Joel Osteen

Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx

To abandon oneself to principles is really to die - and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love.
Albert Camus

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