quotations about conscience
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
There is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life throughout its course: a quiet conscience.
EURIPIDES
Hippolytus
Conscience is the only clue which will eternally guide a man clear of all doubts and inconsistencies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to George Washington, May 10, 1789
A minority may do for a society what the conscience does for an individual.
JOHN HOWARD YODER
The Priestly Kingdom
Conscience is the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us.
SIGMUND FREUD
Totem and Taboo
No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.
STEFAN ZWEIG
Beware of Pity
Having a conscience is not the same as using it.
JOSTEIN GAARDER
Sophie's World
Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.
KARL BARTH
The Word of God and the Word of Man
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
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
Storms in the Conscience will always lodge clouds in the countenance.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Conscience is ... the God dwelling in us.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
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
The relationship between the individual and God, the God-relationship, is the conscience.
SØREN KIERKEGAARD
Works of Love
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
Conscience therefore is a high and awful power; it is solo Deo minor, next and immediately under God, our judge.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
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
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
Scourges, racks, and flames, can inflict no pains to be compared with the stings and tortures of a guilty conscience.
JOHN THORNTON
Maxims and Directions for Youth
Conscience after an evil act is like pulling stockings over muddy boots.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought