Principle & Expediency, Values


“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and suffering.” — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to Samuel Kercheval, 1816)

“The sentiments of men are known not only by what they receive, but what they reject also.” — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (Autobiography, 1821)

“Whatever else may be shaken, there are some facts established beyond warring: virtue is better than vice, truth is better than falsehood, kindness than brutality.” — Quintin Hogg

“We talk on principle but we act on interest.” — William Savage Landor

“Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages.” — Henry Ward Beecher, 19th-century American preacher

“Every man, at the bottom of his heart, wants to do right. But only he can do right who knows right; only he knows right who thinks right; only he thinks right who believes right.” — Tiorio

“Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ’em all over everything you do.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity entertainer

“When things go wrong don’t go with them.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity entertainer

“Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” — Immanuel Kant, 18th-century Prussian geographer and philosopher