Principles and patterns

I have looked at these "principles" for many years and it seems to me: firstly that they are effectively constraints (almost like goals, measures of success i.e. something to be achieved ideally) and that secondly they are often opposing constraints. So that what is required in design in an understand of the trade-offs. This turns out to be very complex if tackled from 1st principles so in mature disciplines the idea of patterns is used which effectively encapsulate a set of principles (and materials) to suggest how something can be achieved. I am not convinced that principles in their raw form can effectively be consumed and applied.

This comment was made in response to this: http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/ea_matters/2011/11/enterprise-architecture-principles-lets-talk-about-them.php#c19997