Stephen Friend Quotes

I’ve searched my conscience about leaving the Republican Party, and I decided it was better to change parties than to change my principles.

Principles without organization may lose, but organization without principles may often win.

Republicans didn’t lose their majority. We lost our way.

However much I have been blamed for not showing more deference to a great party, and for not acting more steadily on party principles, all I have to regret is that I showed so much

A party should be founded not merely on numbers, but on moral principles, without which it can neither accomplish useful work nor inspire confidence.

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.

But rarely have I made choices that made me feel I was really compromising what I believe.

I don't think that has to be our choice... This party was born in principle. This party will die if it doesn't stand by its decision of principle.

Party honesty is party expediency.

One of the reasons for the survival of the ANC (African National Congress) over such a long period, is their ability to steal other people's programs, and to adapt to situations. As extraordinary adaptation to a policy which previously they opposed, and then they realize its merits, and then adjust and it comes out as a different policy. That has been the characteristic of the ANC, for which they've been criticized historically, as being inconsistent. But it's that which enabled them to survive to a ripe old age, and they are still doing it.

A centre party would have no roots, no principles, no philosophy and no values.

If he [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he so sorely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary on the White House backyard come Wednesday.

As to the matter of fusion I am for it, if it can be had on Republican grounds; and I am not for it on any other terms. A fusion on any other terms would be as foolish as unprincipled. It would lose the whole North, while the common enemy would carry the whole South.... I am against letting down the Republican standard a hair's breadth.

Party service does not require intelligent, independent action, and politics today stands for party fealty more than for governmental ethics

This will not be disloyalty but will show that as members of a party they are loyal first to the fine things for which the party stands and when it rejects those things or forgets the legitimate objects for which parties exist, then as a party it cannot command the honest loyalty of its members.

This is a struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party, which in too many cases has become so corporate and identified with corporate interests that you can't tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans

I was a mugwump. We, the mugwumps, a little company made up of the unenslaved of both parties, the very best men to be found in the two great parties--that was our idea of it--voted sixty thousand strong for Mr. Cleveland in New York and elected him. Our principles were high, and very definite. We were not a party; we had no candidates; we had no axes to grind. Our vote laid upon the man we cast it for no obligation of any kind. By our rule we could not ask for office; we could not accept office. When voting, it was our duty to vote for the best man, regardless of his party name. We had no other creed. Vote for the best man--that was creed enough.

I am sorry to say I do doubt the honesty of many men that are called good at home, that have given themselves up to serve a party.

It was expected of me that I was to bow to the name of Andrew Jackson, and follow him in all his motions, and windings, and turnings, even at the expense of my consciences and judgment. Such a thing was new to me, and a total stranger to my principles.

I cannot throw my core values into a dustbin as some do for the sake of power and position. What kind of a politician that would make me then?

[Republicans] swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.

Always get back to your core principles.

What the hell is the sense of trying to hold the Democratic party together, if it's really a party of expediency, something that's put together every four years?

Temporary deviations from fundamental principles are always more or less dangerous. When the first pretext fails, those who become interested in prolonging the evil will rarely be at a loss for other pretexts.