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Conscience Quotes

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Conscience Quotes

“I want nothing to do with politicians. Their hearts wither away, and die out of their bodies. Their consciences are turned to india-rubber, or to some substance as black as that, and which will stretch as much.”

WantHeartBodyDiesPoliticsBlackPoliticianConscienceIndiaSubstanceRubber
Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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“When there exists anywhere a state of suffering, a wrong, a condition of affairs that men of feeling deplore and that troubles the conscience of the upright, to become resigned to it is wicked. Although the evil flaunts itself before our eyes, and no remedy is in sight, we must go and seek a remedy. In the creation of the God of Justice, evil can be but a transitory state.”

MenStatesFeelingsEyeSufferingEvilJusticeTroubleConditionsCreationConscienceSightAffairWickedRemedyTransitoryResigned
Book:Justice
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“Talking to a peasant one day, I suggested to him the hypothesis that there might indeed be a God who governs heaven and earth, a Consciousness or Conscience of the Universe, but that even so it would not be sufficient reason to assume that the soul of every man was immortal in the traditional and concrete sense. And he replied, "Then what good is God?”

MenSoulReasonMightEarthUniverseHeavenConsciousnessTalkingOne DayConscienceAssumingEvery ManTraditionalImmortalitySufficientImmortalConcreteHypothesisPeasantsHeaven And Earth
Book:The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations
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“The secret belief that the Lord of conscience loves and accepts each faithful sacrifice is the ultimate and sufficient support of all goodness; dispensing with the chorus of approving voices; replacing all vain self-reliance with a Divine strength; and with the peace of a reconciled nature consoling the inevitable sorrows of a devoted life.”

SelfBeliefVoiceSecretAcceptingLordSupportSacrificeDivineSorrowGoodnessConscienceUltimateInevitableVainFaithfulSufficientDevotedSelf RelianceRelianceChorusConsolingApproving
Book:Hours of thought on sacred things, sermons
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“The hell of human suffering, evil and oppression is paved with good intentions. The men who have most injured and oppressed humanity, who have most deeply sinned against it, were according to their standards and their conscience good men; what was bad in them, what wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to truth and progress, was not at all in their intentions, in their purpose, in their personal character, but in their opinions.”

MenHumansCharacterPurposeSufferingHumanityEvilMoralOpinionHellProgressHe ManStandardsConscienceIntentionCrueltyOppressionGood ManOppressedInjuredGood IntentionsTreasonHuman SufferingPersonal CharacterMoral Evil
Author:Robert Briffault
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“I don't remember ever being see-saw, when I'd made my mind up that a thing was wrong. It takes the taste out o' my mouth for things, when I know I should have a heavy conscience after 'em. I've seen pretty clear, ever since I could cast up a sum, as you can never do what's wrong without breeding sin and trouble more than you can ever see. It's like a bit o' bad workmanship--you never see th' end o' the mischief it'll do. And it's a poor look-out to come into the world to make your fellow creatures worse off instead o' better.”

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Book:Works
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“More and more it seems to me that the philosopher, being of necessity a man of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, has always found himself, and had to find himself, in contradiction to his today: his enemy was ever the ideal of today. So far all these extraordinary furtherers of men whom one calls philosophers, though they themselves have rarely felt like friends of wisdom but rather like disagreeable fools and dangerous question marks, have found their task, their hard, unwanted, inescapable task, but eventually also the greatness of their task, in being the bad conscience of their time.”

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Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any. By enlisting passion on his side he wants to stifle his reason and its doubts: thus he will acquire a good conscience and with it success among his fellow men.”

MenWantSoulReasonPassionSidesDoubtRightsConscienceFellowsDepthAcquireFellow ManEnlisting
Book:Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
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“A dead language is not only one no longer spoken or written, it is unyielding language content to admire its own paralysis. Like statist language, censored and censoring. Ruthless in its policing duties, it has no desire or purpose other than maintaining the free range of its own narcotic narcissism, its own exclusivity and dominance. However moribund, it is not without effect for it actively thwarts the intellect, stalls conscience, suppresses human potential. Unreceptive to interrogation, it cannot form or tolerate new ideas, shape other thoughts, tell another story, fill baffling silences.”

HumansIdeasStoriesFormDesirePurposeLanguageSilenceWrittenEffectsDutyShapesConscienceIntellectAdmireRangeTolerateNarcissismNew IdeasMaintainingRuthlessDominanceParalysisHuman PotentialNarcoticsInterrogationCensoredCensoringUnyieldingExclusivity
Author:Toni Morrison
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“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.”

MenLastsLateConscienceAidsLuxuryToo LateSpoilHereafterService To OthersZenith
Book:The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
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“What is a great man who has made his mark upon history? Every time, if we think far enough, he is a man who has looked through the confusion of the moment and has seen the moral issue involved; he is a man who has refused to have his sense of justice distorted; he has listened to his conscience until conscience becomes a trumpet call to like-minded men, so that they gather about him, and together, with mutual purpose and mutual aid, they make a new period in history.”

IfsThinkingMenMadeEnoughMomentsTogetherPurposeJusticeMoralHistoryIssuesInvolvedPeriodsConscienceMarkAidsConfusionGreat MenMutualTrumpetsMoral IssuesMutual Aid
Author:Jane Addams
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“Like all truly pure souls she [Chantal] quickly resigned herself to past faults, thought only of how to repair whatever harm they had done. "Of all my daughters, you are certainly the least bothered by scruples of conscience," Abbé Chevance used to say.... Even sin, once the will is detached and no longer nourishes it, withers and dies sterile. It is in the secret of intentions, like in a decomposing humus, in the dark forest of future sins, unpardoned sins, half dead, half living, that new poisons are distilled.”

SoulDonePastUsedDiesDarkSinSecretHalfPureDaughterConscienceFaultsIntentionHarmForestsPoisonMy DaughterBotheredDetachedResignedScruplesPure Soul
Author:Georges Bernanos
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“I have lived with my conscience and my own memories for over quarter of a century since the events of 1973. These are not easy reflections for me. But I am at peace with myself, and with the Chilean people, about what happened. I am clear in my mind that the return to Chile of true democracy, and from that the true freedom to which all individual people are entitled, could not have been achieved without the removal of the Marxist government.”

PeopleMindHas BeensGovernmentIndividualEasyMemoriesMy OwnDemocracyClearHappenedCenturyEventsReturnReflectionConscienceQuartersEntitledMarxistRemovalChileTrue FreedomTrue DemocracyQuarter Of A CenturyChileans
Author:Augusto Pinochet
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“My conscience is my crown,Contented thoughts my rest;My heart is happy in itself,My bliss is in my breast.Enough I reckon wealth;A mean the surest lot,That lies too high for base contempt,Too low for envy's shot.”

HeartMeanEnoughLyingWealthMy HeartLowsShotsConscienceEnvyBlissBreastsContemptCrowns
Book:The poetical works of the rev. Robert Southwell, now first completely ed. by W. B. Turnbull
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“When one does another person an injustice, in some mysterious way it does one good to discover (or to persuade oneself) that the injured party has also behaved badly or unfairly in some little matter or other; it is always a relief to the conscience if one can apportion some measure of guilt to the person one has betrayed.”

IfsWayLittlesPersonsDoeMatterPartyConscienceGuiltInjusticeOneselfBetrayalMysteriousReliefBetrayedInjuredMysterious Ways
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“One good Man may take another's Word, if they so agree, but a whole Nation ought never to trust to any Honesty, but what is built upon Necessity; for unhappy is the People, and their Constitution will be ever precarious, whose Welfare must depend upon the Virtues and Consciences of Ministers and Politicians.”

PeopleIfsMenMayWholeNationsVirtueHonestyDependsOughtPoliticianConscienceBuiltConstitutionAgreeUnhappyMinistersWelfareGood ManPrecarious
Author:Bernard de Mandeville
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“But what of the voice and judgment of conscience? The difficulty is that we have a conscience behind our conscience, an intellectual one behind the moral. ... We can see quite well that our opinions of what is noble and good, our moral valuations, are powerful levers where action is concerned; but we must begin by refining these opinions and independently creating for ourselves new tables of values.”

WellsActionValuesVoicePowerfulBehindsMoralOpinionJudgmentCreatingIntellectualConscienceConcernedDifficultyTablesNobleLeversRefiningValuation
Author:Georg Brandes
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“How different the peace of God from that of the world! It calms the passions, preserves the purity of the conscience, is inseparable from righteousness, unites us to God and strengthens us against temptations. The peace of the soul consists in an absolute resignation to the will of God.”

WorldDifferentSoulPassionPeaceConscienceAbsolutesCalmGods WillTemptationPreservesPurityRighteousnessInseparableResignation
Book:Spiritual Progress
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“To some, freedom means the opportunity to do what they want to do; to most it means not to do what they do not want to do. It is perhaps true that those who can grow will feel free under any condition.”

WantFeelsMeanReasonOpportunityGrowsFreedomConditionsRespectConscienceProhibitionFree Thought
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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