Conscience Quotes - Page 15

• Writing takes a combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief that something is beautiful because it is right.

  Anne Lamott

  Beautiful, Writing, Innocence

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.205, Anchor

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• Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society.

  James A. Baldwin

  Inspirational, Life, War

  "Breaking Into James Baldwin's House" by Thomas Chatterton Williams, www.newyorker.com. October 28, 2015.

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• Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Thinking, Degrees

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.3, Hayes Barton Press

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• I realize how depraved it was to instill false guilt in an innocent child's conscience, causing a distorted image of life, God, & self, leaving little if any feeling of personal worth.

  Mary Griffith

  Children, Self, Leaving

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• The more truthful I am with myself and others, the more my conscience is clear and tranquil. Thus, I can more thoroughly and unequivocally inhabit the present moment and accept everything that happens without fear, knowing that what goes around comes around (the law of karma). Ethical morality and self-discipline represent the good ground, or stable basis. Mindful awareness is the skillful and efficacious grow-path, or way. Wisdom and compassion constitute the fruit, or result. This is the essence of Buddhism [...]

  Surya Das

  Karma, Buddhism, Compassion

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• A bad conscience is easier to cope with than a bad reputation.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Reputation, Easier, Bad Reputation

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• You might want to think twice before you try to use a man's conscience against him. It may turn out he doesn't have one.

  Brent Weeks

  Men, Thinking, Trying

  Brent Weeks (2010). “The Black Prism: Book 1 of Lightbringer”, p.97, Hachette UK

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• Many Introverts are also "highly sensitive," which sounds poetic, but is actually a technical term in psychology. If you are a sensitive sort, then you're more apt than the average person to feel pleasantly overwhelmed by Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" or a well-turned phrase or an act of extraordinary kindness. You may be quicker than others to feel sickened by violence and ugliness, and you likely have a very strong conscience.

  Susan Cain

  Strong, Kindness, Average

  Susan Cain (2012). “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking”, p.14, Broadway Books

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• Patriotism in its simplest, clearest and most indubitable signification is nothing else but a means of obtaining for the rulers their ambitions and covetous desires, and for the ruled the abdication of human dignity, reason, conscience, and a slavish enthrallment to those in power.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Ambition, Mean, Patriotism

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• We teach them to take their patriotism at second-hand; to shout with the largest crowd without examining into the right or wrong of the matter -- exactly as boys under monarchies are taught and have always been taught. We teach them to regard as traitors, and hold in aversion and contempt, such as do not shout with the crowd, and so here in our democracy we are cheering a thing which of all things is most foreign to it and out of place -- the delivery of our political conscience into somebody else's keeping. This is patriotism on the Russian plan.

  Mark Twain

  Cheer, Boys, Hands

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.349, Courier Corporation

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• Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out their conscience, thus helping bring the collective conscience to life.

  Norman Cousins

  Life, Motivational, Peace

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• One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Heart, Winning

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• Dream of a society at peace with its conscience because it respects and lives in harmony with all life forms.

  John Robbins

  Dream, Peace, Humanity

  John Robbins (2011). “Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth”, p.9, H J Kramer

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• The objections to religion are of two sorts - intellectual and moral. The intellectual objection is that there is no reason to suppose any religion true; the moral objection is that religious precepts date from a time when men were more cruel than they are and therefore tend to perpetuate inhumanities which the moral conscience of the age would otherwise outgrow.

  Bertrand Russell

  Death, Religious, Men

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.30, Simon and Schuster

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• Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no persuasion move thee, to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so shalt thou always live jollity; for a good conscience is a continual Christmas.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Christmas, Integrity, Moving

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• It isn't the absence of conscience or values that prevents us from being all we should be, it is simply the lack of moral courage.

  Michael Josephson

  Courage, Moral, Absence

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• Let us not speak of tolerance. This negative word implies grudging concessions by smug consciences. Rather, let us speak of mutual understanding and mutual respect.

  Dominique Pire

  Respect, Negative Words, Understanding

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• Everyone has conscience enough to hate; few have religion enough to love.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Hate, Enough, Despise

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• Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Community, Individuality, Ethics

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1292, eBookIt.com

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• Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.

  George Santayana

  Justice, Bars, Spirit

  George Santayana (1937). “The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion”

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• It is neither safe nor prudent to do anything against conscience.

  Martin Luther

  Motivational, Safe, Prudent

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• Being tolerant does not mean that I share another one's belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another one's right to believe, and obey, his own conscience.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Believe, Mean, Liberty

  Viktor E. Frankl (2014). “The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy”, p.46, Penguin

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• Conscience is wiser than science.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Wisdom, Science, Wiser

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• Freedom is the opportunity for right development, for development in accordance with the progressive ideal of life that we have in conscience.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Opportunity, Development, Progressive

  Charles Horton Cooley (1992). “Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.423, Transaction Publishers

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• The quiet conscience is the invention of the devil. No one of us may permit any preventable pain to be inflicted even though the responsibility for that pain is not ours. No one may shut his eyes and think that the pain which is therefore not visible, is non-existent.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Pain, Eye, Responsibility

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