quotations about conscience
Judge not according to the orthodox standard of a system religious, philosophical, political, but according as things promote, or fail to promote the delicacy, integrity, and authority of Conscience.
LORD ACTON
postscript of letter to Mandell Creighton, Apr. 5, 1887
Conscience and cowardice are really the same things.... Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.
STEFAN ZWEIG
Beware of Pity
Some men are born under the law; their whole life is a continued struggle between the lower principles of their nature and the higher. These are what are called men of principle; each of their best actions is a distinct choice between conflicting motives. One propension would bear them here; another there; a third would hold them still: into the midst the living will goes forth in its power, and selects whichever it holds to be best. The habitual supremacy of conscience in such men gives them an idea that they only exert their will when they do right; when they do wrong they seem to "let their nature go "; they say that "they are hurried away": but, in fact, there is commonly an act of will in both cases ;--only it is weaker when they act ill, because in passably good men, if the better principles are reasonably strong, they conquer; it is only when very faint that they are vanquished.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Literary Studies
Conscience ... seldom comes to a man's aid while he is in the zenith of health and revelling in pomp and luxury upon illgotten spoils. It is generally the last act of his life, and it comes too late to be of much service to others here, or to himself hereafter.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to John P. Posey, Aug. 7, 1782
Conscience is a man's compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities in directing one's course by it, still one must try to follow its direction.
VINCENT VAN GOGH
Dear Theo: the Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh
If we neglect conscience, most evils are possible.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Notwithstanding, pestilence may surprise even the castle of motive; and it is a strange power (rising up out of the depth which speech cannot explore, nor thought even think of, as the eye cannot see vision) that by conscience we can lay down rules for conscience and train it by good exercise, which is, for aught we know, as if a member of the body, feeling its own weakness, should set itself at exercise to gain strength.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays
Having a conscience is not the same as using it.
JOSTEIN GAARDER
Sophie's World
Wicked men by specious errors and intoxicating pleasure contrive to lull conscience into a slumber; but when it wakes, its voice is louder than thunder, and its strokes keener than flashes of lightning.
JOHN THORNTON
Maxims and Directions for Youth
There is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life throughout its course: a quiet conscience.
EURIPIDES
Hippolytus
Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.
MARTIN LUTHER
On Marriage
Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Vicar of Wakefield
Conscience, the organ of feeling which dominates us and of the opinions which rule us, is presumptuous in the strong, timid in the weak and unfortunate, uneasy in the undecided.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES, Reflections and Maxims
Storms in the Conscience will always lodge clouds in the countenance.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Conscience after an evil act is like pulling stockings over muddy boots.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Conscience is extinct among us, but it is said to still linger among the more savage tribes of Africa: proof that there is a pressing need for more missionaries.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
For conscience may be turned awry, or fall sick in a moral pestilence, like any other faculty.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays
The relationship between the individual and God, the God-relationship, is the conscience.
SØREN KIERKEGAARD
Works of Love
The wound of conscience is no sear, and Time cools it not with his wing, but merely keeps it open with his scythe.
JOHANN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER
Titan