Expediency Quotes

• But courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility.

  Erwin Rommel

  Courage, Military, Stupid

  Letter on November 09, 1942. "The Rommel Papers". Book edited by Basil Henry Liddell Hart. Chapter 16: "The Great Retreat," p. 347, 1953.

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• When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder.

  Laozi

  Inspirational, Deep Life, Honor

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• The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Principles, Useful Things, Expedience

  Circle (1921) act 3

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• There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Time

  "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution". Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Speech in Washington, D.C., kinginstitute.stanford.edu. March 31, 1968.

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• Do not let arguments of expediency persuade you. That is the slow road to oblivion. That is the tortured path to undoing step by step, bit by bit, as the river creates a canyon, the way of life that we love.

  Charles Schumer

  Rivers, Way, Path

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• Religion and political expediency go beautifully hand in hand

  Friedrich Durrenmatt

  Hands, Political, Literature

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• In his essay 'Self-Reliance' Emerson wrote, 'Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.' The Apostle Paul reminds us that whoso would be a Christian must also be a a nonconformist. Any Christian who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Christian, Spiritual, Men

  "Strength to Love". Book by Martin Luther King, Jr. , Ch. 2, 1963.

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• Policy sits above conscience.

  William Shakespeare

  Policy, Conscience

  1605 First Stranger.Timon of Athens, act 3, sc.2, l.87-8.

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• Those individuals who give moral considerations a much greater weight than considerations of expediency represent a comparatively small minority, five percent of the people perhaps. But, In spite of their numerical inferiority, they play a major role in our society because theirs is the voice of the conscience of society.

  Leo Szilard

  Science, Play, Voice

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• Experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Sacrifice, Long, Wish

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

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• No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Life, Men, Evil

  In Works, Memorial edition (1925) vol. 15, p. 388 "Latitude and Longitude among Reformers"

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• neither tolerance nor intolerance is grounded in science and reason, but they are themselves acts of faith grounded in social custom and the politics of expediency and power

  John Money

  Tolerance, Reason, Social

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• More often there's a compromise between ethics and expediency.

  Peter Singer

  Ethics, Compromise, Expedience

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• Young people are just as attracted to the truth as they are convenience and expediency.

  Pope Francis

  People, Convenience, Young

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• Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it Confucius All truth is safe and nothing else is safe, but he who keeps back truth, or withholds it from men, from motives of expediency, is either a coward or a criminal.

  James Russell Lowell

  Love, Truth, Men

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• Expediency often silences justice.

  Seneca the Younger

  Justice, Silence

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• Morality and expediency coincide more than the cynics allow.

  Roy Hattersley

  Pregnancy, Morality

  The Guardian, September 30, 1988.

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• The law is simply expediency wearing a long white dress.

  Quentin Crisp

  Funny, Humor, Law

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• Cowardice asks: Is it safe? Expediency asks: Is it politic? But Conscience asks: Is it right?

  William Morley Punshon

  Safe, Cowardice, Asks

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• Party honesty is party expediency.

  Grover Cleveland

  Honesty, Party, Political

  Grover Cleveland (1892). “The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland”

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• Custom adapts itself to expediency.

  Tacitus

  Habit, Customs

  Tacitus (2013). “The Annals”, p.253, Courier Corporation

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• The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Funny, Truth, Consistency

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

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• The Republicans have put together serious detailed counter-proposals when we have objected to this administration's agenda. And so, I want to tell the President and remind him again, we're not voting no for political expediency. We've got our principles, and we're going to stand up and defend those.

  Eric Cantor

  Political, Voting, President

  "POLITICO Interview: Eric Cantor". Interview with Mike Allen, www.politico.com. January 29, 2010.

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• moral, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Quality, Morality, Standards

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.146, 谷月社

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• The supremacy of expediency is being refuted by time and truth. Time is an essential dimension of existence defiant of man's power, and truth reigns in supreme majesty, unrivaled, inimitable, and can never be defeated.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Men, Essentials, Reign

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.85, Stanford University Press

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