1. What are principles?
   Your values are what you consider important, literally what you “value.” Principles are what allow you to live a life consistent with those values. Principles connect your values to your actions; they are beacons that guide your actions, and help you successfully deal with the laws of reality. It is to your principles that you turn when you face hard choices.

1）什么是原则？
你的价值观是你所认为的重要的东西。原则就是让你能够在生活中的表现和你的价值观一致的东西。原则链接这你的价值观和行动，他们是指导你行动的灯塔。能够帮助你成功的处理现实的规则。当我们面对选择的时候，我们常常会用到原则。

2. Why are principles important?
   All successful people operate by principles that help them be successful. Without principles, you would be forced to react to circumstances that come at you without considering what you value most and how to make choices to get what you want. This would prevent you from making the most of your life. While operating without principles is bad for individuals, it is even worse for groups of individuals (such as companies) because it leads to people randomly bumping into each other without understanding their own values and how to behave in order to be consistent with those values.

2）为什么原则如此重要
所有的成功者都依原则行事。如果没有原则我们将用应激的方式面对世界，而不是理性思考的结果。当我们在没有原则的指导下行事，这对于个体和群体都是灾难。因为我们这将导致人们彼此之间不能了解到价值观，行为自然也不能很好的统一。

3. Where do principles come from?
   Sometimes we forge our own principles and sometimes we accept others’ principles, or holistic packages of principles, such as religion and legal systems. While it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to use others’ principles—it’s difficult to come up with your own, and often much wisdom has gone into those already created—adopting pre-packaged principles without much thought exposes you to the risk of inconsistency with your true values. Holding incompatible principles can lead to conflict between values and actions—like the hypocrite who has claims to be of a religion yet behaves counter to its teachings. Your principles need to reflect values you really believe in.

3）原则从哪里来？
我们可以自己思考我们自己的原则，有些时候我们也可以学习别人的原则或者历史人物的原则。但是未经加工的拿来主义是行不通的，如果我们不假思考的照搬别人的原则，而这些原则与我们的价值观本身有很多冲突。这就像一个言行不一的伪君子。你的原则需要反应你自己的价值观。