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on principle
According to a fixed rule or practice. For example, The police were locking up the demonstrators on principle . [First half of 1800s]
On moral or ethical grounds. As James Russell Lowell wrote about Alexander Pope in 1871, “There was a time when I could not read Pope, but disliked him on principle.†[First half of 1800s]
on general principle . For no special reason, in general, as in Dean won't touch broccoli on general principle . [First half of 1800s]
Example Sentences
I really think that sometimes a lot of radical activists do not realize that, in order to achieve their objectives, you have to be able to fight on principle but be pragmatic in building broad coalitions, and that's what the abolitionists did.
So if you think about it in that way, you realize that radical social movements should stand on principle even when they're in the minority, but that political change is possible only when you're willing to ally yourself with people who may not be as radical as you, but who are willing to unite with you against a greater threat.
He told how his father, a police chief in small-town Iowa, was fired because he stood up to the local good-old-boy network, refusing, on principle, to brook their petty tyrannies.
You can reject that law on principle, of course, or argue that it isn’t nearly as true as Trump thinks it is, or wants it to be.
Despite the alarm of climate scientists, Reuters reports the Big Six banks are reacting to pressure from Republican politicians who oppose taking climate action on principle.
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