The Importance of Principles in Ethics

I view myself as defending reality against the absence of principles. The basic principle is you shouldn't tell lies, and that's easy to find counter examples too. So it says every act that's a lie is the worst for it, even though it may have other features that make it the right thing to do. Now on that account, a counter example to this sort of principle is going to be a different sort of beast. It's going to be case where an action is a lie but is not the worst forIt or even is a lie and is the better for it.