How to Use on principle in a Sentence

on principle

idiom

• The schools say their complaints are based on principle.
  — Anemona Hartocollis, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2023
• Is he prepared to stand up to them — for you, for his own reasons, on principle?
  — Washington Post, 21 Jan. 2022
• Why get hung up on principle when power is so near at hand?
  — Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 11 May 2021
• The Falklands War was fought on principle more than anything else.
  — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 4 Dec. 2020
• But as soon as Lee walked through the door, the restaurant staff scurried to get them a table, which Lee declined on principle.
  — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023
• Yet as Taliban gains blot out more and more of the Afghan map, his death is also a case study in the extreme peril of standing on principle in defiance.
  — Jocelyn Noveck, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Aug. 2021
• The union believes housing is a human right and landlords, on principle, should not exist.
  — Bailey Loosemore, The Courier-Journal, 5 July 2022
• When standing on principle and pursuing equal rights seemed fraught with peril, Jean’s work served as a lodestone for me.
  — Maryanne George, Detroit Free Press, 12 Oct. 2021
• Carter was not just a fleeting appointee on a a long roster of office holders or a bureaucrat afraid to take a stand on principle.
  — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 2 Nov. 2022
• McGovern went to trial on principle; the seventh person’s trial will take place in Iowa City this spring.
  — Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2024
• If there’s a price presented, send your regrets on principle.
  — Michelle Singletary, Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2022
• After another pep talk from Khalil (good friend alert!), Mavis hots herself up and goes in for the meeting, but then refuses to work with Jacque on principle and strides right out.
  — Emma Specter, Vogue, 28 July 2023
• Common Ground, however, said the agency should do so, on principle, to hear from its residents.
  — Journal Sentinel, 11 Apr. 2024
• My father was against the green card and, on principle, dual citizenship.
  — Weike Wang, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
• Karp was so charming that early Gawker went after him on principle.
  — Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 1 Feb. 2022
• Notwithstanding the financial toll of that $6000 upgrade, there are those among us that believe on principle that hard-core Jeeps should only be fitted with stick shifts.
  — Mike Sutton, Car and Driver, 24 Nov. 2020
• What seems most unlikely, however, is that top players will band together to stiff-arm the Saudis on principle.
  — Beth Ann Nichols, USA TODAY, 1 Aug. 2022
• Hanke objects to sanctions both on principle and practice.
  — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 11 Nov. 2023
• However, the rules on principle are flexible, so the trust document could provide almost any type of standard.
  — Martin Shenkman, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024
• People who oppose horse racing on principle often point to such occurrences while making their case.
  — Victor Mather, New York Times, 25 May 2023
• So, there is something to be said for standing on principle, waiting for cooler heads to prevail, and making the arguments to bring people around to these fundamental values.
  — Matt Thompson, SPIN, 7 Feb. 2023
• Not one of the recent cancellation attempts has been justified, and NR has stood on principle on every occasion.
  — Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 10 Feb. 2022
• Conservatives defend the Senate, ostensibly on principle — but come on, it's rigged in their favor.
  — Ryan Cooper, The Week, 29 Oct. 2021
• Wealthy non-tax-paying institutions should pay taxes on principle.
  — Clio Chang, Curbed, 13 Dec. 2023
• For in the course of resolving leadership level disagreements – whether within the board itself, or between the board and management – there is always a place for both compromise and insistence on principle.
  — Michael Peregrine, Forbes, 6 Jan. 2023
• Others oppose the death penalty on principle, have no faith in the tribunal system, or have become resigned to the idea that, because the defendants were tortured by C.I.A., capital punishment is unlikely.
  — Carol Rosenberg, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2023
• For Wikipedia to reject this steady stream of money, to throw up objections based on principle, would perhaps seem as quixotic and stubborn as those homeowners who turn down a big check from a real estate developer planning a new skyscraper.
  — Noam Cohen, Wired, 16 Mar. 2021
• Under his mantle, Duke has become known as a press that blends scholarly rigor with conceptual risk-taking, where high and low art boldly intermingle on principle.
  — Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2022
• In recent months, Aguilar, the college student who was prompted to tip at a hockey game, began collecting examples of shops and companies that refuse tips on principle as part of a research project for his macroeconomic theory class.
  — Marisa Gerber, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
• In recent months, Aguilar, the college student who was prompted to tip at a hockey game, began collecting examples of shops and companies that refuse tips on principle as part of a research project for his macroeconomic theory class.
  — Marisa Gerber, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023

Last Updated: 21 Aug 2024