A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

The aphorism warns that civic freedoms and advantages (“privileges”) are not self-sustaining; they depend on adherence to underlying moral and constitutional commitments (“principles”). If a society treats rights, status, or material benefits as more important than the ethical standards and rule-of-law norms that justify them, it becomes willing to compromise those norms for short-term gain. The result is a double loss: principles erode through expediency and corruption, and privileges disappear as institutions weaken, trust collapses, and power concentrates. Whether or not Eisenhower coined it, the sentiment fits mid‑20th‑century anxieties about democratic resilience under pressure from fear, partisanship, and the temptations of security and prosperity.