Having principles is important, but you don’t want to walk off a cliff with your principles.
It is not easy to stand up against your constituents or your friends or colleagues or your community and take a tough stand for something you believe is right. Because you always want to keep working and live to fight another battle and it might cost you your career.
It is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.
That said, your values will not always be the object of public admiration. In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world.
I am ready to rot in jail for the rest of my life rather than admit that my small-minded enemies are right.
My parents always told me if I believed something was wrong, I should try to fix it.
You want to go to your deathbed saying, 'I didn't sell out.' But it's a tough business to keep to what you believe in and get through and do well.
Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your convictions.
I think the one thing that most stands out is that my father always did what he believed to be the right thing to do and he always told us that we had to go our own way even if he disagreed.
I'd rather be dead and in heaven than afraid to do what I think is right.
Dare to risk public criticism.
