I am a man of principles

I am a man of my word

Come gather round and listen to the things you’ve never heard

Come look at all my principles

I’ll defend them to the end

But if circumstances change again, I’ll gladly make them bend

You can do a lot with principles

You can wear them on your sleeve

You can raise them up the flag pole as the enemy army leaves

Come choose among my principles

They tend to come and go

Just why that tends to happen wasn’t meant for me to know

I live a life of principles

And try to take a stand

A solid one on water and a looser one on land.

You shouldn’t sell your principles

Or calculate their cost

Unless, of course, there’s no way out and you are really lost.

The world is full of principles

We use them every day

They shape the things we do and make us say the things we say.

There is no end of principles

That we can choose to try

The prospects are enormous and the limit is the sky.

I think I’ll take my principles

And use them at my whim

I’ll take them for a walk and then I’ll take them for a swim.

I’ll exercise my principles

In every way and means

And look the other way when someone says I’m full of beans

I always have my principles

To guide me through the night

When life is full of darkness there is always room for light.

I am a man of principles

That guide me through my test

And if the ones I have don’t work I’ll have to try the rest.