Quotes About Conscience

Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it. Albert Einstein

I have managed not to finish certain books. With barely a twinge of conscience, I hurl down what bores me or doesn't give what I crave: ecstasy, transcendence, a thrill of mysterious connection. For, more than anything else, readers are thrill-seekers, though I don't read thrillers, not the kind sold under that label, anyway. They don't thrill; only language thrills.

If my Bible is collecting dust and my conscience is being hushed, then my heart is in danger of being crushed.

True poetry is composed of metaphors and symbols which are born in the heart, rise like clouds, and assume a celestial form; verses formed otherwise are not poetry, but only artificial words, each of which contradicts the feelings inside. The utterances and words that have not been formed in a person's soul as the voice of conscience are all hollow, no matter how embellished they are or how dazzling they seem to be.

A perfect poem owes its perfection to sounding the voice of the heart and the melodies of the conscience, as well as its ability to reflect the considerations, beliefs, opinions, and horizons of thought of the poet, but not due to its formal or mental aspects.

I'm not a leftist; I'm where the righteous ought to be.

By the same token, if conscience and empathy were impediments to the advancement of self-interest, then we would have evolved to be amoral sociopaths.

My people are going to learn the principles of democracy the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will, every man can follow his own conscience provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him act against the liberty of his fellow men.

That old honorary Cuban had simplified the question all to hell when he'd said that a moral act is something you feel good after. Conversely, you feel bad after an immoral act. But what about the act that is neither moral nor immoral, Papa? How are you supposed to feel then?

Bahá'í teachings have certain safeguards against religious intolerance. Bahá'í writings contain statements that affirm freedom of conscience, the right to different religious beliefs, or to no religious belief. Bahá'ís are told not to discriminate in any way against those who are not Bahá'ís, and children born into Bahá'í families are free to choose their own spiritual paths.

With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news--that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

The Choice Spare him till he dies. Torment him till he lives.

There is a common tendency to turn off one's imagination at certain points and refuse to contemplate the possibility of having to do certain things and cope with the attendant moral problems. The things simply get done by the social machine, and one can keep one's clear conscience and one's moral indignation unsullied.

How often would I have the chance to see a pretty girl bathing? I could recall no specific prohibition from the church or the Scriptures, though I knew it was wrong. But maybe it wasn't terribly sinful.

her lies, something came over him, maybe the Holy Spirit, and he just couldn't

We live in a world of rights that has no sense of purpose; we live in a world of tolerance that has no sense of dignity for those tolerated or conscience concerning what is to be tolerated; we live in a world of leisure and squander it on empty pursuit; we live in a world of comfort and convenience where we can accumulate anything we want except that which matters most.

you ought to be good even if you did not believe that you would burn in torment forever if you were bad;

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman

It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules.

Save me from curious conscience, that still hoards Its strength for darkness, burrowing like the mole; Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, And seal the hushed casket of my soul.

Like two figures in the medieval Morality play, Pragmatism and Morality spar in the boxing ring of my brain.

The members of the functional and socially mobilized under class must, in some very real way, be seen as the architects of their own fate. If not, they could be, however marginally, on the conscience of the comfortable. There could be a disturbing feeling, however fleeting, of unease, even guilt.