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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• 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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• Religion and political expediency go beautifully hand in hand

  Friedrich Durrenmatt

  Hands, Political, Literature

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• Expediency often silences justice.

  Seneca the Younger

  Justice, Silence

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

  Quentin Crisp

  Funny, Humor, Law

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

  Peter Singer

  Ethics, Compromise, Expedience

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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

  "Homosexuality: Bipotenitality, Terminology, and History" by John Money,

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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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• Custom adapts itself to expediency.

  Tacitus

  Habit, Customs

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

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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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• In every sort of danger there are various ways of winning through, if one is ready to do and say anything whatever.

  Socrates

  Winning, Say Anything, Way

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• Expediency is a law of nature. The camel is a wonderful animal, but the desert made the camel.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Animal, Law, Camels

  Benjamin Disraeli (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Disraeli (Illustrated)”, p.3319, Delphi Classics

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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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• Not curiosity, not vanity, not the consideration of expediency, not duty and conscientiousness, but an unquenchable, unhappy thirst that brooks no compromise leads us to truth.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Vanity, Curiosity, Unhappy

  "Briefe von und an Hegel, Volume 4". Book by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1977.

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