Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles.

The line contrasts short-term, expedient “success” with the kind that endures because it is grounded in integrity. It suggests that achievements gained by compromising core values—through dishonesty, cruelty, or opportunism—carry built‑in instability: they erode trust, invite backlash, and leave the achiever internally divided. By linking permanence to principles, the quote frames ethics not as a constraint on ambition but as a stabilizing foundation for reputation and self-respect. Read this way, “success” is not merely winning or advancement; it is a durable standing in the eyes of others and oneself, maintained because the means of attaining it are consistent with one’s moral commitments.