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Conscience Quotes

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Conscience Quotes

“No great, inspiring culture of the future can be built upon the moral principle of relativism. For at its bottom such a culture holds that nothing is better than anything else, and that all things are in themselves equally meaningless. Except for the fragments of faith (in progress, in compassion, in conscience, in hope) to which it still clings, illegitimately, such a culture teaches every one of its children that life is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.”

ChildrenStillsLife IsCultureCompassionMoralPrinciplesTeachProgressConscienceBuiltAll ThingsBottomTalesIdiotMeaninglessFragmentsRelativismMoral PrinciplesSignifying
Author:Michael Novak
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“Two hundred years ago the forces of freedom challenged this idea. The children of the new enlightenment rose up to defy the tyranny of arrogant clergy and the censorship of pious bureaucrats. They boldly proclaimed that the state must be free from religious coercion and that religion must be free from state control. All individuals have the right to pursue the dictates of their own conscience. All citizens even have the right not to be religious at all.”

YearsChildrenTwoIdeasStatesIndividualForceReligiousAtheismCitizensEnlightenmentHundredConscienceYears AgoRoseTyrannyPursueCensorshipArrogantCoercionPiousBureaucratsClergy
Author:Sherwin Wine
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“When our laws tell people that what lies behind the thin wall of a women's abdomen during pregnancy is not a human being and that the destiny of a preborn child lies with the private conscience of the mother, we are essentially telling society that life itself is not important enough to be called an inalienable right. If life itself is not the most fundamental of all rights, then what is?”

PeopleIfsHumansChildrenImportantEnoughLawLyingMotherHuman BeingsBehindsDestinyRightsWallConscienceFundamentalsPregnancyAbdomen
Author:Bob Dornan
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“Children of God should not make a general confession by acknowledging their innumerable sins in a vague manner, because such confession does not provide conscience opportunity to do its perfect work. They ought to allow the Holy Spirit through their conscience to point out their sins one by one. Christians must accept its reproach and be willing, according to the mind of the Spirit, to eliminate everything which is contrary to God.”

ShouldMindChildrenDoeChristianSpiritOpportunitySinPerfectAcceptingWillingOughtHolyConscienceContraryHoly SpiritConfessionVagueChild Of GodReproachPerfect Work
Book:The Spiritual Man
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“The adolescent frequently supposes that she is breaking out of the confines of her mundane, schoolgirl existence simply in order to break rules and defy authority. . . . She rids herself of the "oughts" and "musts" that convert every minor infraction into a sin of omission or commission. It certainly does not occur to her or to her family that by questioning the moral standards she erected as a child she is taking the first steps in her journey toward a firmer, more reasonable, less harsh, more ethical form of conscience.”

FirstsChildrenDoeFormOrderSinExistenceMoralStepsBreakJourneyAuthorityStandardsConscienceReasonableEthicalFirst StepsQuestioningMinorsAdolescenceHarshMundaneOmission
Author:Louise J. Kaplan
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“As blacks, we need not be afraid that encouraging moral development, a conscience and guilt will prevent social action. Black children without the ability to feel a normal amount of guilt will victimize their parents, relatives and community first. They are unlikely to be involved in social action to improve the black community. Their self-centered personalities will cause them to look out for themselves without concern for others, black or white.”

NeedsFeelsFirstsLooksChildrenSelfActionSocialCausesParentBlackCommunityAbilityWhiteMoralIdentityPersonalityDevelopmentAmountInvolvedNormalConscienceConcernGuiltUnlikelySelf CenteredBlack Or WhiteBlack CommunityConcern For OthersCultural IdentitySocial ActionMoral Development
Author:James P. Comer
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“See to it, night and day, that you pray for your children. Then you will leave them a great legacy of answers to prayer, which will follow them all the days of their life. Then you may calmly and with a good conscience depart from them, even though you may not leave them a great deal of material wealth.”

MayChildrenNightWealthPrayerAnswersDealsMaterialsPrayingConscienceOur ChildrenLegacyYour ChildrenAnswers To PrayerMaterial WealthPraying For You
Author:Ole Hallesby
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“The experience of a sense of guilt for wrong-doing is necessary for the development of self-control. The guilt feelings will laterserve as a warning signal which the child can produce himself when an impulse to repeat the naughty act comes over him. When the child can produce his on warning signals, independent of the actual presence of the adult, he is on the way to developing a conscience.”

WayChildrenSelfFeelingsProduceDevelopmentConscienceAdultsIndependentGuiltDevelopingImpulseRepeatsWarningSelf ControlSignalsNaughtyGuilt Feelings
Author:Selma Fraiberg
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“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents' verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don't speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”

MenChildrenPlayWholeFactsSpeakLanguageParentMoralRolesAchievementConscienceOrganizationComplexesFactorsIndispensableFormationProhibition
Author:Selma Fraiberg
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“An older child, one who possesses a conscience, will be troubled with self-reproaches and feelings of shame for his naughtiness, even if he is not discovered. But our two-year-olds and our three-year- olds experience guilt feelings only when they feel or anticipate disapproval from the outside. In doing this, they have taken the first steps toward the goal of conscience, but there is a long way ahead before the policeman outside becomes the policeman inside.”

IfsWayFeelsYearsFirstsChildrenLongTwoSelfFeelingsThreeGoalStepsTakenConscienceShameGuiltTwo YearsThree YearsFirst StepsLong WayPolicemenAnticipateReproachDisapprovalThree Year OldsTwo Year OldsGuilt Feelings
Author:Selma Fraiberg
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“The child begins life as a pleasure-seeking animal; his infantile personality is organized around his own appetites and his own body. In the course of his rearing the goal of exclusive pleasure seeking must be modified drastically, the fundamental urges must be subject to the dictates of conscience and society, urges must be capable of postponement and in some instances of renunciation completely.”

ChildrenBodyCoursesGoalPleasureAnimalSubjectsPersonalityCapableConscienceFundamentalsSeekingInstanceOrganizedUrgesAppetiteExclusiveRenunciationInfantilePostponementPleasure Seeking
Book:The Magic Years: Understanding and Handling the Problems of Early Childhood
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“Money as such is, as Oscar Wilde said, perfectly useless. You can't eat it, drink it, shelter yourself from the cold with it, wear it, or make love with it unless deeply disturbed. In and of itself, it has no emotions, no mind, and no conscience. It doesn't put out flowers or have children, and it makes a lousy pet. It has meaning only when it circulates, and is exchanged for other things; and money doesn't do that for itself. People do that, using money as a symbolic token.”

PeopleMindChildrenSaidEmotionFlowerColdDrinkConscienceUselessPetShelterOscarsMaking LoveSymbolicDisturbedTokensWilde
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“I know people's problems: the problems of those who work hard, who must slave away. The couples who have two incomes but who can nevertheless barely cover their rent. The people who get stuck in traffic on their way to work. The people who have to wait in vain for a train to come just as they are supposed to be picking up their children from daycare. I can say with a clear conscience to those people: I understand your problems. And I will do all I can to decrease them.”

PeopleKnowsWayChildrenI CanTwoHardProblemWaitingClearHard WorkCoupleConscienceTrainSlaveStuckIncomeSupposed To BeVainNeverthelessTrafficDecreaseClear ConscienceDaycareStuck In Traffic
Author:Martin Schulz
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“Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution. And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.”

FirstsChildrenActionChristianForceNationsCausesWaitingBornReligiousJusticeCompassionLibertyGreaterConscienceMercySickConstitutionNeedyPersecutedReligious Liberty
Author:Mitt Romney
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“Sometimes, the Angel [of Music] leans over the cradle... and that is how there are little prodigies who play the fiddle at six better than men of fifty, which, you must admit is very wonderful. Sometimes, the Angel comes much later, because the children are naughty and won't learn their lessons or practice their scales. And sometimes, he does not come at all, because the children have a wicked heart or a bad conscience.”

MenHeartChildrenLittlesDoeSometimesPlayPracticeWonderfulLessonsSixConscienceAngelScalesFiftyWickedCradleNaughtyFiddleProdigies
Author:Gaston Leroux
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“Comic books, movies, radio programmes centered their entertainment around the fact of torture. With the clearest of consciences, with a patriotic intensity, children dreamed, talked, acted orgies of physical abuse. Imaginations were released to wander on a reconnaissance mission from Cavalry to Dachau. European children starved and watched their parents scheme and die. Here we grew up with toy whips. Early warning against our future leaders, the war babies.”

ChildrenBookWarFactsDiesParentImaginationLeaderBabyGrewGrew UpConscienceAbuseRadioEntertainmentMissionsWanderComicTorturePatrioticOur FutureIntensityWarningToysSchemesComic BookWhipsProgrammesPhysical AbuseFuture LeadersCavalryDachau
Author:Leonard Cohen
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“But there was no hiding from Conscience. Not in new homes and new cars. In travel. In meditation or frantic activity. In children, in good works. On tiptoes or bended knee. In a big career. Or a small cabin. It would find you. The past always did. Which was why... it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you. And found you... Who wouldn't be afraid of this?”

ChildrenHomeBigsActionPastFoundCareersMeditationCarGrewActivityConscienceKneesHidingGood WorkCabinsFranticNew HomeNew CarFound YouTiptoes
Book:The Brutal Telling: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
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“Humans are the only animals that have children on purpose, keep in touch (or don't), care about birthdays, waste and lose time, brush their teeth, feel nostalgia, scrub stains, have religions and political parties and laws, wear keepsakes, apologize years after an offense, whisper, fear themselves, interpret dreams, hide their genitalia, shave, bury time capsules, and can choose not to eat something for reasons of conscience. The justifications for eating animals and for not eating them are often identical: we are not them.”

FeelsYearsHumansChildrenReasonDreamCareLawPoliticalPurposeLosesAnimalPartyWasteEatingConscienceDon't CareNostalgiaTeethJustificationApologizingOffenseBrushesPolitical PartiesIdenticalStainsEating AnimalsTime CapsulesKeepsakes
Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
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“Who is pure in heart? Only those who have surrendered their hearts completely to Jesus that he may reign in them alone. Only those whose hearts are undefiled by their own evil--and by their own virtues too. The pure in heart have a child-like simplicity like Adam before the fall, innocent alike of good and evil: their hearts are not ruled by their conscience, but by the will of Jesus.”

HeartMayChildrenFallEvilJesusVirtuePureConscienceSimplicityInnocentGood And EvilAdamReign
Author:Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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“I am for liberty of conscience in its noblest, broadest, and highest sense. But I cannot give liberty of conscience to the pope and his followers, the papists, so long as they tell me, through all their councils, theologians, and canon laws that their conscience orders them to burn my wife, strangle my children, and cut my throat when they find their opportunity.”

GivingChildrenLongLawReligionOrderOpportunityLibertyCuttingWifeAtheismHighestConscienceMy WifeMy ChildrenThroatFollowersPopeTheologianCouncilCanon
Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife. But the problems are such that for anybody with a conscience who can use whatever influence he may have to try to bring about peace, it's difficult to say no.”

TryingMayChildrenUseProblemWantedCoursesDifficultCompassionWifeInfluenceConscienceMy WifeMy ChildrenMore TimeRetiringGrandchildrenMy GrandchildrenRest In PeaceNo Compassion
Author:Nelson Mandela
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“Do to us what you will, and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. But we assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

HeartChildrenStillsHomeSufferingWinningProcessDifficultLove YouVictoryOne DayConscienceCapacityEncouragementOur ChildrenAppealsBombsAssuredStill Love YouWe Will Win
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their "vital interests" are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the "sanctity" of human life, or the "conscience" of the civilized world.”

PeopleThinkingMenWorldHumansChildrenPoliticalSpeakInterestTakenConscienceRainResponsibleTerrorismTyrannyHuman LifeTortureBombsCivilizedTyrantsStatus QuoWretchedSlaughterSanctityEnslavementDefenselessSanctity Of Human Life
Author:James A. Baldwin
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“Where the good begins.- Where the poor power of the eye can no longer see the evil impulse as such because it has become too subtle, man posits the realm of goodness; and the feeling that we have now entered the realm of goodness excites all those impulses which had been threatened and limited by the evil impulses, like the feeling of security, of comfort, of benevolence. Hence, the duller the eye, the more extensive the good. Hence the eternal cheerfulness of the common people and of children. Hence the gloominess and grief - akin to a bad conscience - of the great thinkers.”

PeopleMenChildrenFeelingsEyeValuesEvilPoorCommonGriefMoralSecurityComfortGoodnessEternalConscienceImpulseRealmsSubtleThinkerThreatenedBenevolenceCheerfulnessGreat Thinkers
Book:The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs
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“Blind obedience is itself an abuse of human morality. It is a misuse of the human soul in the name of religious commitment. It is a sin against individual conscience. It makes moral children of the adults from whom moral agency is required. It makes a vow, which is meant to require religious figures to listen always to the law of God, beholden first to the laws of very human organizations in the person of very human authorities. It is a law that isn't even working in the military and can never substitute for personal morality.”

FirstsHumansChildrenPersonsSoulLawNamesIndividualReligiousSinMoralMilitaryFiguresMoralityAuthorityEthicsConscienceAdultsCommitmentOrganizationAbuseIndependenceBlindObedienceAgencySubstitutesHuman SoulVowMisuseBlind Obedience
Author:Joan D. Chittister
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“Faith is the framework for living. It gives us the spirit and heart that affects everything we do. If gives us hope each day. Faith gives us purpose to right wrongs, to preserve our families, and to teach our children values. Faith gives us conscience to keep us honest, even when nobody is looking. And, faith can change lives; I know first hand, because faith changed mine.”

IfsKnowsGivingFirstsHeartChildrenHandsSpiritPurposeValuesTeachHonestChangedMinesConscienceOur ChildrenPreservesPresidentialOur FamilyLife ChangingEach DayFramework
Author:George W. Bush
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