By holding the bonds to maturity, you will indeed get your principal back, but in an environment with higher interest rates and inflation, those same nominal dollars will be worth less. (ritholtz.com)
Suppose, again under the same circumstances, that the investor holds the bond to maturity. (investinginbonds.com)
In fact, if you don't hold bonds to maturity, you may experience similar interest - rate risk as a comparable - duration bond fund. (fidelity.com)