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Principles

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Lonnie | 12:17 Wed 04th Feb 2009 | Society & Culture
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This follows something that was said on a thread in R & S,

What does living by principles mean to you?.

How far would you go to uphold a principle?.

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Hi Lonnie,

For me, living by priniciples didn't matter once upon a time because I had no choice.

I had to stoop very low in some peoples opinions to pay my bills.

I think my morals are that of an alley cat to be honest and I don't think I've changed.

But!!!! I think I'm a good person really lol

L.
Principles are just an expression of ego.

They are saying "I'm right and everybody else is wrong"

And too often it is not those with the principles that are picking up the tab.

Perhaps your principles say that you don't negotiate with terrorists?

What if they were holding your daughter?

It's easy to talk high and mighty about principles when the bombs are falling on other peoples heads




My principles are important to me, but since living in this world means living with other people, no one can live solely on his principles. Sometimes we have to compromise.

How far would I go to uphold a principle? It would depend on the viability of the principle. Fighting for a clearly unachievable goal would be futile.
Oh and don't tell me you're willing to fight for your principles.

Tell me you're willing to die for them

Tell me you're willing to let your children die for them and tell them that too.

Because it's not soldiers and terrorists that are responsible for all the death and maiming.

It's all the people supporting them for whom their principles are more important than human life
Take your pick from these, Lonnie.

�We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.� - Mark Twain

�It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.� - Alfred Adler

�I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.� - Everett Dirksen

�Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.� - Groucho Marx
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Funny really, I should have expected answers like these,

Jake and Quinlad, I asked what Principles, mean, and how far would you go to up hold them, Personally, what they mean to you, not what other people have said about them.

I agree, there are times when your principles have to be sacrificed, but i'm asking what you think about your own principles.

Naomi,
Thanks for answering the question I asked,
I agree on compromise, but all depending on the situation, some people obviously feel that compromise is impossible, i'm not saying thats right or wrong, but it can lead to an untenable situation.
Ones ability to live by principles depends on the principles they choose to live by. If ones principles fully correspond to reality then they will serve those who live by them. Here are a few of the principles I live by:

Seek only mutually beneficial relationships. Anything one hopes to gain at another's uncompensated expense proves ultimately to be an illusion.

Never initiate the use of force. The use of force is only appropriate in self-defense against those who do.

There are no contradictions in reality. When faced with an apparent contradiction, check your premise.

The only principle worth dying for is one without which life (the process of self-sustaining self-regenerating action), would not be possible.

As a species that has evolved with the capacity and need to live by reason, an attack on conceptual consciousness is an attack on our means of existence and therefore we as representatives of this unique species have an obligation to ourselves to define our principles on sound philosophical grounds in order to defend ourselves from those who refuse to evolve and are thus by choice lower than the beasts for which evolution is not a choice.

There's no getting around that this is a complex, all encompassing issue with requirements far exceeding the scope possible in a single thread. Nevertheless I hope you found this meaningful and appropriate to your question.
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Excellent answer mibs, a lot of thought gone into it, shame jake and Quinlad haven't come back on it.
better class of customer. Put the label in a more prominent place

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