Noun
first principle (plural first principles)
A basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.
Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. William Ewart Gladstone
The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic. George Soros
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. Richard Feynman
The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai Stevenson II
The first principle of child-rearing is to choose a good mother. Christian Morgenstern
Those who deny the first principle should be flogged or burned until they admit that it is not the same thing to be burned and not burned, or whipped and not whipped. Avicenna