quotations about conscience
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 was chiefly fear of society, or fear of oneself.
D. H. LAWRENCE
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Conscience after an evil act is like pulling stockings over muddy boots.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
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
A minority may do for a society what the conscience does for an individual.
JOHN HOWARD YODER
The Priestly Kingdom
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 the magnet of the soul. It has a divine polarity. Amid the tempests of passion, in the dark hours of trial, that only lie just this side of despair, when a host of fierce temptations beleaguer, then consult this Divine Monitor; and though its tiny needle may tremble amid the attractions of earth, yet, if uncorrupted, its polestar will be the throne of God.
HORACE MANN
Thoughts
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
The relationship between the individual and God, the God-relationship, is the conscience.
SØREN KIERKEGAARD
Works of Love
No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.
STEFAN ZWEIG
Beware of Pity
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
Conscience is ... the God dwelling in us.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Having a conscience is not the same as using it.
JOSTEIN GAARDER
Sophie's World
Storms in the Conscience will always lodge clouds in the countenance.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
If conscience may sicken by induration as often is seen, until there be no sensitiveness, why may it not sicken also the other way by being nursed indoors, as it were, till it grows soft and takes a shock from the natural air? Perhaps conscience is in this state when persons object to aught in its own place, or conceive too readily that it has no place, as for example dancing and other pleasures. For there are many to whom a pleasure itself savors of evil and every gayety is a peril.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays
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
In a world descending into barbarism, having a conscience is like having leprosy; it eats you away.
LINDA BENDER
Animal Wisdom
If a kind man stands by his conscience and exhibits truth in his words and actions, he will stand by God regardless of his faith.
SUZY KASSEM
Rise Up and Salute the Sun
Sin in the conscience, is like Jonah in a ship, which causeth such a tempest, that the conscience is like a troubled sea, whose waters cannot rest, or it is like a mote in the eye, which causeth a perpetual trouble while it is there.
THOMAS BROOKS
A Cabinet of Jewels