27 uses
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Definition
a basic rule or belief
The exact meaning of principle can depend upon its context. For example:
- "our guiding principles" — basic moral beliefs that guide decisions and behavior
- "electromagnetic principles" — rules describing how the world works
- "She lacks principles." — lacks moral guidelines
- "We agree in principle." — about important basic beliefs
- I believed he was naturally a man of better tendencies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed, education instilled, or destiny encouraged.Chapter 15 (60% in)
- I remember her as a slim young woman, with black hair, dark eyes, very nice features, and good, clear complexion; but she had a capricious and hasty temper, and indifferent ideas of principle or justice: still, such as she was, I preferred her to any one else at Gateshead Hall.Chapter 4 (22% in)
- ...but the time will soon come when, I trust, we shall put them off in putting off our corruptible bodies; when debasement and sin will fall from us with this cumbrous frame of flesh, and only the spark of the spirit will remain, — the impalpable principle of light and thought, pure as when it left the Creator to inspire the creature: whence it came it will return; perhaps again to be communicated to some being higher than man — perhaps to pass through gradations of glory, from the pale...Chapter 6 (91% in)
- Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly — here in an evangelical, charitable establishment — as to wear her hair one mass of curls?Chapter 7 (52% in)
- I keep it and rear it rather on the Roman Catholic principle of expiating numerous sins, great or small, by one good work.Chapter 14 (**% in)
- I was actually permitting myself to experience a sickening sense of disappointment; but rallying my wits, and recollecting my principles, I at once called my sensations to order; and it was wonderful how I got over the temporary blunder — how I cleared up the mistake of supposing Mr. Rochester's movements a matter in which I had any cause to take a vital interest.Chapter 17 (1% in)
- She had Roman features and a double chin, disappearing into a throat like a pillar: these features appeared to me not only inflated and darkened, but even furrowed with pride; and the chin was sustained by the same principle, in a position of almost preternatural erectness.Chapter 17 (53% in)
- , of the parties, the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood.Chapter 18 (44% in)
- All their class held these principles: I supposed, then, they had reasons for holding them such as I could not fathom.Chapter 18 (44% in)
- I am afraid your principles on some points are eccentric.Chapter 24 (35% in)
- My principles were never trained, Jane: they may have grown a little awry for want of attention.Chapter 24 (35% in)
- Giacinta was unprincipled and violent: I tired of her in three months.Chapter 27 (58% in)
- You think me an unfeeling, loose-principled rake: don't you?"Chapter 27 (59% in)
- I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad — as I am now.Chapter 27 (81% in)
- Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be.Chapter 27 (81% in)
- In the midst of my pain of heart and frantic effort of principle, I abhorred myself.Chapter 27 (97% in)
- There was a reviving pleasure in this intercourse, of a kind now tasted by me for the first time — the pleasure arising from perfect congeniality of tastes, sentiments, and principles.Chapter 30 (2% in)
- Well, propensities and principles must be reconciled by some means.Chapter 30 (80% in)
- Yes; I feel now that I was right when I adhered to principle and law, and scorned and crushed the insane promptings of a frenzied moment.Chapter 31 (22% in)
- You too have principle and mind: your tastes and habits resemble Diana's and Mary's; your presence is always agreeable to me; in your conversation I have already for some time found a salutary solace.Chapter 33 (95% in)
- Can I bear the consciousness that every endearment he bestows is a sacrifice made on principle?Chapter 34 (76% in)
- Both by nature and principle, he was superior to the mean gratification of vengeance: he had forgiven me for saying I scorned him and his love, but he had not forgotten the words; and as long as he and I lived he never would forget them.Chapter 35 (3% in)
- To his sisters, meantime, he was somewhat kinder than usual: as if afraid that mere coldness would not sufficiently convince me how completely I was banished and banned, he added the force of contrast; and this I am sure he did not by force, but on principle.Chapter 35 (11% in)
- I deeply venerated my cousin's talent and principle.Chapter 35 (17% in)
- To have yielded then would have been an error of principle; to have yielded now would have been an error of judgment.Chapter 35 (81% in)
- As she grew up, a sound English education corrected in a great measure her French defects; and when she left school, I found in her a pleasing and obliging companion: docile, good-tempered, and well-principled.Chapter 38 — Conclusion (42% in)
- Mary's is a clergyman, a college friend of her brother's, and, from his attainments and principles, worthy of the connection.Chapter 38 — Conclusion (79% in)
There are no more uses of "principle" in Jane Eyre.
Typical Usage
(best examples)