He acted out of expediency, not principle.

他的行为是出于权宜之计而非原则。

《牛津词典》

Mr Kaczynski’s opposition to Lisbon is about posturing not principle. He says publicly that he is merely waiting for the second Irish referendum before signing.

卡钦斯基对《里斯本条约》抵制只是一种姿态而非原则性问题，他公开表示，自己只是想在签署条约前等待爱尔兰第二次全民公投的结果。

youdao

It's a written letter not a conversation, but the principle is the same.

这是一封写好的信而不是一次谈话，但它们的原理一样的。

youdao

but that,by our frame of government, that principle has not been made one of legal obligation;

VOA: special.2009.02.09

We didn't just need that n, not just the principle quantum number that we needed to discuss the energy, but we also need to talk about l and m, as we did in our clicker question up here.

我们不仅需要ｎ,不仅要这个可以,决定能量的主量子数，还需要ｍ和ｌ,就像我们做这道题这样。

麻省理工公开课 - 化学原理课程节选

So, he finally realizes that Sal actually has a specific love for him, not caring about him somehow in principle, which is the way of course that Dean cares.

所以最后他了解到萨尔对自己有真正爱的付出，原则上是不能在乎的，但迪安当然很在乎。

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选

"I believe the eurosceptics are people with ambition not principle, " he said.

BBC: UKIP seeks two million votes

If, the argument goes on, you take concern for everyone's liberty seriously, you will treat the proper scale of government as a matter of circumstance, not principle.

ECONOMIST: Liberalism

And hedge funds are not in principle the place for bullish bets on Asian growth.

ECONOMIST: Hedge funds in Asia