Seen attributed to Lord Victor on a meme on Facebook
“When a fellow says it ain't the money but the principle of the thing, it's the money.”
“When a fellow says, "It hain't the money, but th' principle o' the thing," it's th' money.”
Hoss Sense and Nonsense (1926).
As quoted in The American Treasury, 1455-1955 (1955) by Clifton Fadiman, p. 993.
Variant: When a fellow says, "It ain't the money but the principle of the thing," it's the money.
“Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.”
Address on American Spirit http://books.google.com/books?id=_VYEIml1cAkC&pg=PA142&dq=%22loyalty+means+nothing%22, Washington (13 July 1916)
1910s
Letter to the "Anti-Enlistment League" organized by Jessie Wallace Hughan (20 September 1915)
Context: I know you are brave and unselfish people, making sacrifices for a great principle but I cannot join you. I believe in the present effort which the allies are making to suppress German militarism. I would approve of America going to their assistance. I would enlist to that end, if ever there be a situation where I believe I could do more with my hands than I could with my pen.
“It is the principle of the common law, that an officer ought not to take money for doing his duty.”
Stotesbury v. Smith (1759), 2 Burr. Part IV. 928.
Of Hollywood; Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed): Art. Claude Rains p. 362
Source: Money Mischief (1992), Ch. 2 The Mystery of Money
Misattributed, "What surprises you most about humanity?"
Otto Neurath (1983) "The orchestration of the sciences by the encyclopedism of logical empiricism." In R. S. Cohen, M. Neurath, & C. R. Fawcett (Eds.), Otto Neurath: Philosophical papers, 1913–1946 (pp. 230–242). Boston: Riedel. (First published 1946); p. 239
1940s and later
Argument Against the Writs of Assistance (1761)
