Quotes About Conscience

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.

with that very large part of mankind who have religion enough to make them uneasy when they do wrong, and not religion enough to keep them from doing wrong, he followed a very different system.

Passion against Reason, Reason against Faith, Faith against the Devil, and my Conscience against all.

Sins of ignorance or infirmity are to be admonished in a different way than intentional sins of malice of intention. The assurance of forgiveness is not to be offered carelessly by those whose conscience is seared, but to penitents who come contritely to the table of the Lord.

The theater in which God has chosen to meet rational creatures quietly is the inward realm of conscience, moral reasoning, prayer, and study, especially study of the revealed Word.

God loves us toughly enough not to allow us to be happy with our sins. The recollection of sin rightly brings misery of conscience. How else could moral awareness be saved from sentimentality? The deepest human happiness, we learn, is grounded in holiness - God's holy love and our responsive attempts to reflect it fittingly.

Every experienced pastor knows that what the penitent heart says about itself is much more consequential than well-made truthful sentences that shout from the outside of the inner voice of conscience. No element of confession is more crucial than the discipline of listening. The attentive listener is a chosen agent of divine reconciliation. When the moment for keen listening is offered, take it as an inestimable gift.

One trains the eye of confession most closely on what is hurting. If sin is present it will be aching. Confession begins where the raw anguish of conscience is rubbing against the primordial awareness of God's holiness.

The ghostly consciousness of wrong.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Enjoy things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.

In so-called moral decisions, emotion always trumps reason.

In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.

I have been described by one of my colleagues as a 'militant agnostic' with my tagline, 'I don't know, and neither do you!' I take this hard-line, fence-sitting position because it is the only position consistent with both my scientific ethos and my conscience.

It's very hard to turn your back once you're aware of what's going on, and you're aware of the injustices, and you're aware of the civilian casualties. It's much easier if you have no idea and you've never seen it.

It lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

I have no problems with failures, I'm afraid of failing within myself. At times when I know I did something wrong, I don't sleep that night. I'm scared of facing myself.

In the end, you should always do the right thing even if it hurts.

Voltaire's pointed question, 'What to say to a man who tells you he prefers to obey God than to obey men, and who is consequently sure of entering the gates of Heaven by slitting your throat?

Will wrestled with his conscience, grappled it to the ground and sat on it until he couldn't hear a squeak out of it.

Experience, then, was something that enabled you to do nothing with a clear conscience. Experience was an overrated quality.

So there we have it. I get up in the morning determined to do something approximating to the right thing, and with in two hours find something to feel guilty about.

Most decent people can't sleep easily at night, and that, apparently, is precisely why the world is in such a mess.

When you think you're on the good side, you're capable of unthinkable evil.