What's the difference between moral and unprincipled?

Moral


Definition:

  • (a.) Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects right and wrong, so far as they are properly subject to rules.
  • (a.) Conformed to accepted rules of right; acting in conformity with such rules; virtuous; just; as, a moral man. Used sometimes in distinction from religious; as, a moral rather than a religious life.
  • (a.) Capable of right and wrong action or of being governed by a sense of right; subject to the law of duty.
  • (a.) Acting upon or through one's moral nature or sense of right, or suited to act in such a manner; as, a moral arguments; moral considerations. Sometimes opposed to material and physical; as, moral pressure or support.
  • (a.) Supported by reason or probability; practically sufficient; -- opposed to legal or demonstrable; as, a moral evidence; a moral certainty.
  • (a.) Serving to teach or convey a moral; as, a moral lesson; moral tales.
  • (n.) The doctrine or practice of the duties of life; manner of living as regards right and wrong; conduct; behavior; -- usually in the plural.
  • (n.) The inner meaning or significance of a fable, a narrative, an occurrence, an experience, etc.; the practical lesson which anything is designed or fitted to teach; the doctrine meant to be inculcated by a fiction; a maxim.
  • (n.) A morality play. See Morality, 5.
  • (v. i.) To moralize.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Along the spectrum of loyalties lie multiple loyalties and ambiguous loyalties, and the latter, if unresolved, create moral ambiguities.
  • (2) With respect to family environment, a history of sexual abuse was associated with perceptions that families of origin had less cohesion, more conflict, less emphasis on moral-religious matters, less emphasis on achievement, and less of an orientation towards intellectual, cultural, and recreational pursuits.
  • (3) The matter is now in the hands of the Guernsey police and the law officers.” One resident who is a constant target of the paper and has complained to police, Rosie Guille, said the allegations had a “huge impact on morale” on the island.
  • (4) Guardian Australia reported last week that morale at the national laboratory had fallen dramatically, with one in three staff “seriously considering” leaving their jobs in the wake of the cuts.
  • (5) And this has opened up a loophole for businesses to be morally bankrupt, ignoring the obligations to its workforce because no legal conduct has been established.” Whatever the outcome of the pending lawsuits, it’s unlikely that just one model will work for everybody.
  • (6) If we’re waiting around for the Democratic version to sail through here, or the Republican version to sail through here, all those victims who are waiting for us to do something will wait for days, months, years, forever and we won’t get anything done.” Senator Bill Nelson, whose home state of Florida is still reeling from the Orlando shooting, said he felt morally obligated to return to his constituents with results.
  • (7) In his notorious 1835 Minute on Education , Lord Macaulay articulated the classic reason for teaching English, but only to a small minority of Indians: “We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.” The language was taught to a few to serve as intermediaries between the rulers and the ruled.
  • (8) This paper discusses the relationship between the psychoanalytic concept of character and the moral considerations of 'character'.
  • (9) "This will obviously be a sensitive topic for the US administration, but partners in the transatlantic alliance must be clear on common rules of engagement in times of conflict if we are to retain any moral standing in the world," Verhofstadt said.
  • (10) This continuing influence of Nazi medicine raises profound questions for the epistemology and morality of medicine.
  • (11) But with the advantages and attractions that Scotland already has, and, more importantly, taking into account the morale boost, the sheer energisation of a whole people that would come about because we would finally have our destiny at least largely back in our own hands again – I think we could do it.
  • (12) But none of those calling on Obama to act carries the moral authority of Gore, who has devoted his post-political career to building a climate movement.
  • (13) Fleeting though it may have been (he jetted off to New York this morning and is due in Toronto on Saturday), there was a poignant reason for his appearance: he was here to play a tribute set to Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of house and one of Morales's closest friends, who died suddenly in March.
  • (14) The government also faced considerable international political pressure, with the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, Juan Méndez, calling publicly on the government to "provide full redress to the victims, including fair and adequate compensation", and writing privately to David Cameron, along with two former special rapporteurs, to warn that the government's position was undermining its moral authority across the world.
  • (15) Father Vincent Twomey said that given the damage done by Smyth and the repercussions of his actions, "one way or another the cardinal has unfortunately lost his moral credibility".
  • (16) This is a moral swamp, but it's one the Salvation Army claims to be stepping into out of charity .
  • (17) In what appeared to be pointed criticism of increasingly firm rhetoric from Cameron on multinational tax engineering, Carr insisted tax avoidance "cannot be about morality – there are no absolutes".
  • (18) For an industry built on selling ersatz rebellion to teenagers, finding the moral high ground was always going to be tricky.
  • (19) A vigorous progressive physical and occupational therapy program producing tangible results does more for the patient's morale than any verbal encouragement could possibly do.
  • (20) We have a moral duty to conserve them and to educate people about their habitat, health and the threats they face."

Unprincipled


Definition:

  • (a.) Being without principles; especially, being without right moral principles; also, characterized by absence of principle.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) An unprincipled coward with the backbone of an amoeba."
  • (2) And Miliband, through his distaste for much of what New Labour did, “made it acceptable for Labour to rubbish its own achievements and treat winning elections as unprincipled”.
  • (3) , that argues Australia’s approach to human rights “too often has been passive and, of greater concern ... at times ... inconsistent and unprincipled”.
  • (4) Why Livingstone is not recognised as one of the most unprincipled demagogues in Britain after this performance – why, indeed, Labour has not expelled him – is one of the wonders of the age.
  • (5) We’re talking about a very positive response by the public in terms of determination to register and vote but, you know, this has been one of the most vicious, unprincipled, vulgar and violent election exercises I have ever witnessed,” Soyinka reflected sadly.
  • (6) Femi Fani-Kayode, spokesman for the PDP presidential campaign, told Nigeria’s Channels television: “One thing we can all agree on is this is a very close election, probably the closest election in the history of Nigeria , but we believe at the end of the day we will pull through.” Nigerian laureate Wole Soyinka laments ‘vicious, unprincipled’ election Read more He complained of irregularities, however, including alleged APC voters who were underage or brought in from neighbouring Chad and Niger.
  • (7) Annas discusses the importance of In re A.C. in situations where physicians turn to the courts to force compliance from competent pregnant women, a use of the judiciary that Annas calls "counterproductive, unprincipled, sexist, and repressive."
  • (8) If the Tories really want a cynical unprincipled opportunist as leader, at least they know where to look.
  • (9) We have waited 10 years to be told that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, is an unprincipled thug.
  • (10) Strong commitment at the center of the party to deals seen as unscrupulous and unprincipled by supporters was a train wreck waiting to happen.
  • (11) People call him wolf; he’s seen as unprincipled and rapacious,” said Louisa Lim, a Hong Kong native and author of People’s Republic of Amnesia, a book about the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
  • (12) I hope parliament will also debate seriously the delegation of the payment of a welfare benefit from a department of state to a public broadcaster, and reject this unprincipled move.
  • (13) In his view, the judges "justified their brutal and unprincipled opinion on the basis that [A.C.] was almost dead," and therefore the fetus's interests outweighed hers.
  • (14) Cameron laughs, takes a beat to consider how to answer, then effectively endorses her characterisation of Johnson as a man driven only by his unprincipled ambition: “It was a very good debate.
  • (15) None of these changes can be expected under the influence of Donald Trump, who sees the truth as tractable, promotes his sexism and narcissism as assets, and in the end, is excessively volatile and unprincipled.
  • (16) All Scandinavian countries are fond of looking down on their neighbours as unprincipled.
  • (17) George Galloway has launched a furious attack on Ed Miliband, describing the Labour leader as "an unprincipled coward with the backbone of an amoeba", after the Respect MP was criticised by him.
  • (18) Such a situation would be unsettlingly reminiscent of 1936, when the centre and the left – notably in France – temporarily halted the swing to fascism but formed an unprincipled and ineffective coalition.
  • (19) It is of no legal consequence because as everybody knows in the Westminster system other than with a reserve power the governor general acts on the advice of his or her ministers.” In a pitch to crossbench senators considering the motion, Abetz said: “It is disgraceful, it is beyond belief, that the Labor party has become so unprincipled in their defence of corrupt union activity that they would go down this track and I trust that the independent senators will not fall for that stunt by Labor.” The Greens are likely to support the motion, meaning Labor needs support from four of the eight crossbench senators to pass it.
  • (20) Nor did Obama have much to say in a speech dominated by nitty-gritty domestic concerns on the other big international issues of the day, whether the problem be climate change (mostly ignored) or China's unprincipled rise (skirted around).