Quotessence
Home / Topics / Conscience Quotes

Conscience Quotes

Browse 3008 quotes about Conscience.

Related topics

MenIfsPeopleHeartWorldKnowsShouldMayThinkingHumansLawSoulDoeWayMindClearMoralBelieveLibertyReasonVoiceGivingSinFeelsEvilWellsSocialIndividualStatesClear ConscienceWantActionFirstsReligiousSelfDutyPersonsNeedsMatterHas BeensGuiltyGovernmentJusticeLongMeanTryingBodyLooksNationsStillsWarIntegrityEndsGuiltKindLittlesCharacterCountrySpiritSufferingAuthorityLeadershipHandsRightsChildrenDoneForceJudgmentPoliticalVirtueChristianFeelingsGuilty ConscienceLyingTurnsArtAtheismFactsHelpingJudgingMadeNamesSpeakValuesMightBeliefInterestOpinionPrinciplesQuietAmericaChristI CanLifeLightMoralityReligionResponsibilityWholeEnoughmore

Conscience Quotes

“There are many who say more than the truth on some occasions, and balance the account with their consciences by saying less than the truth on others. But the fact is that they are in both instances as fraudulant as he would be that exacted more than his due from his debtors, and paid less than their due to his creditors.”

FactsWould BeBalanceConscienceAccountsPaidDuesInstanceOccasionsCreditorsDebtorsSaying Less
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
Create image

“Control cannot be called conscience until we are able to take it inside us and make it our own, until--in spite of the fact that the wrongs we have done or imagined will never be punished or known--we nonetheless feel that the clutch in the stomach, that chill upon the soul, that self-inflicted misery called guilt.”

FeelsSoulSelfDoneFactsAbleKnownConscienceGuiltMiserySpiteStomachChillClutchSelf Inflicted
Book:Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Ex
Create image

“While criticism or fear of punishment may restrain us from doing wrong, it does not make us wish to do right. Disregarding this simple fact is the great error into which parents and educators fall when they rely on these negative means of correction. The only effective discipline is self-discipline, motivated by the inner desire to act meritoriously in order to do well in one's own eyes, according to one's own values, so that one may feel good about oneself may "have a good conscience.”

FeelsWellsMayMeanDoeSelfFactsEyeDesireValuesOrderFallWishParentSimpleDisciplineConscienceNegativeCriticismErrorsOneselfPunishmentFeel GoodRelyMotivatedSelf DisciplineEducatorCorrections
Author:Bruno Bettelheim
Create image

“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
Create image

“Frequently, we busily search for group service projects, which are surely needed and commendable, when quiet, personal service is also urgently needed. Sometimes the completing of an occasional group service project ironically salves our consciences when, in fact, we are constantly surrounded by a multitude of opportunities for individual service. In serving, as in true worship, we need to do some things together and some things personally. Our spiritual symmetry is our own responsibility, and balance is so important.”

NeedsImportantSometimesFactsTogetherSpiritualOpportunityIndividualResponsibilityGroupsNeededBalanceQuietProjectsWorshipConscienceServingMultitudesOccasionalSymmetryCompletingCommendableTrue Worship
Author:Neal A. Maxwell
Create image

“The moral faculties are generally esteemed, and with justice, as of higher value than the intellectual powers. But we should always bear in mind that the activity of the mind in vividly recalling past impressions is one of the fundamental though secondary bases of conscience. This fact affords the strongest argument for educating and stimulating in all possible ways the intellectual faculties of every human being.”

WayShouldMindHumansFactsPastValuesJusticeHuman BeingsMoralBearsHigherActivityIntellectualConscienceArgumentBasesFundamentalsImpressionFacultyStrongestNatural Selection
Book:The Descent of Man
Create image

“[Albert Camus] positions are sensed. So, naturally, those intellectuals who don't have that experience have difficulty in comprehending it. But I think it made Camus more tolerant because he had already seen both sides of things when the others had only ever seen one. They imagine poverty, but they don't know what it is. In fact they've got a sort of bad conscience about the working classes.”

ThinkingKnowsMadeFactsSidesClassPovertyImaginePositionConscienceDifficultyWorking ClassBoth SidesComprehending
Author:Catherine Camus
Create image

“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
Create image

“Remember something, if you will, about voting: Voting is not a horse race, you're not going there thinking "Gee, I gotta pick the winner so I can brag to my friends 'Oh, I picked so-and-so and he or she won'". Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience and when you've done that, don't ever, EVER let a Democrat or Republican tell you that you've wasted your vote because the fact is, if you DON'T vote your heart and conscience then you HAVE wasted your vote.”

IfsThinkingHeartI CanDoneFactsRememberRaceRepublicanPicksConscienceMy FriendsVoteHorseDemocratWinnerVotingBragRemember Something
Author:Jesse Ventura
Create image

“You should always aim to be your own mouse, Lieam. In fact...you already are. You are not so quick to jump into danger as Saxon and not as pensive of mind as Kenzie. They rely on each other too much. Saxon knows he can afford to be reckless since Kenzie acts as his conscience. And Kenzie can linger in his thoughts and plans, because he knows Saxon can defend him. I tested Kenzie earlier. I wanted to see if he would be swayed by my advice. It took Saxon's coaxing to make up the greyfur's mind. Be compleete with in yourself young redfur...you will never disappoint. Even in solitude.”

IfsKnowsShouldMindFactsWould BeWantedYoungToo MuchPlansAdviceDangerSolitudeConscienceAimRelyMiceTestedRecklessDisappointPensive
Author:David Petersen
Create image

“Our too-young and too-new America, lusty because it is lonely, aggressive because it is afraid, insists upon seeing the world in terms of good and bad, the holy and the evil, the high and the low, the white and the black; our America is frightened of fact, of history, of processes, of necessity. It hugs the easy way of damning those whom it cannot understand, of excluding those who look different, and it salves its conscience with a self-draped cloak of righteousness”

WorldWayLooksDifferentSelfFactsAmericaYoungEvilEasyProcessBlackTermWhiteSeeingHolyLowsConscienceLonelyRighteousnessFrightenedAggressiveHugGood And BadCloaksEasy WaySeeing The WorldBlack Boy
Book:American Hunger
Create image

“To resort to power one need not be violent, and to speak to conscience one need not be meek. The most effective action both resorts to power and engages conscience. Nonviolent actions does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences. Nor does it have to petition those in power to do something about a situation. It can face the authorities with a new fact and say: Accept this new situation which we have created.”

NeedsDoeFactsActionFacesSpeakForcePeaceSituationAcceptingNiceEffectsAuthorityConscienceViolentBeing NiceResortsMeekPetitionsNew Situations
Author:Barbara Deming
Create image

“Today social justice represents one of the most serious challenges to the conscience of the world. The abyss between those who are within the world 'order' and those who are excluded is widening day by day. The use of leading-edge technologies has made it possible to accumulate wealth in a way that is fantastic but perverse because it is unjustly distributed. Twenty-percent of humankind control eighty percent of all means of life. That fact creates a dangerous imbalance in the movement of history.”

WorldWayMeanMadeFactsUseTodayOrderSocialChallengesWealthJusticeHistoryTechnologyDangerousMovementSeriousPercentConscienceTwentiesSocial JusticeEdgesInequalityMade ItFantasticHumankindUnjustAbyssTheologianDistributionEightyWorld OrderExcludedImbalancePerverseness
Book:The Prayer of Saint Francis: A Message of Peace for the World Today
Create image

“It is a fact that, in the West, we live in a capitalist society, but that does not mean that we cannot be guided by the idea of a social conscience in our work. Yes, fashion design requires consumers to consume, but we can do our bit for society by running our companies in a socially responsible way, and by creating products that promote respect for social and environmental issues. There is also the possibility for power and influence to be a force for change.”

WayMeanDoeIdeasFactsRunningForceSocialBitsCan DoChangeResponsibilityCompanyIssuesInfluenceFashionDesignPossibilityProductsCreatingConscienceResponsibleWestEnvironmentalConsumersCapitalistFashion DesignEnvironmental Issues
Author:Giorgio Armani
Create image

“The purpose of science is to develop, without prejudice or preconception of any kind, a knowledge of the facts, the laws, and the processes of nature. The even more important task of religion, on the other hand, is to develop the consciences, the ideals, and the aspirations of mankind.”

KindImportantFactsHandsLawSciencePurposeProcessKnowledgeMankindConscienceIdealsTasksAccountsPrejudiceAspirationPreconceptions
Book:The electron, its isolation and measurement ant the determination of some of its properties
Create image

“In sum, the truth is that we luxuriate in the comfortable assertion that women enjoy equality. We have salved our consciences by eliminating the more obvious discriminations like unequal rates of pay for work of equal value. But, in fact, we have not eliminated the inheritance of the millennia that women are lesser beings, an inheritance which still manifests itself in a whole range of prejudice and other forms of discrimination.”

StillsWholeFactsFormValuesEnjoyLeadershipPayTruth IsEqualComfortableConsciencePrejudiceRateObviousDiscriminationRangeInheritanceAssertionEliminating
Author:Bob Hawke
Create image

“It is the Germans who are responsible for the fact that I became a fabricator of arms. If not for them, I would have constructed agricultural machines. (...) If someone asks me how I can sleep at night knowing that my arms have killed millions of people, I respond that I have no problem sleeping, my conscience is clean. I constructed arms to defend my country.”

PeopleIfsI CanCountryFactsProblemNightAsksSleepMillionsKnowingArmsConscienceMachinesResponsibleCleanAsk MeNo Problem
Author:Mikhail Kalashnikov
Create image

“Guilt is also a way for us to express to others that we are a person of good conscience. 'I feel really guilty about getting drunk last night,' we say, when in actual fact we feel no guilt whatsoever or, at least, we could choose to feel no guilt. When people say to me, 'I drank too much last night,' I always reply, 'I drank exactly the right amount.”

PeopleWayFeelsPersonsFactsLastsNightToo MuchAmountConscienceGuiltGuiltyDrunkLast NightDrankGetting Drunk
Book:How to be Free
Create image

“It is a mournful fact that most men, and indeed all men of worldly character, have so much regard to public opinion that they dare not act according to the dictates of their consciences when acting thus would incur the popular frown.”

MenCharacterFactsActingOpinionConscienceRegardDareDenialWorldlyPublic OpinionSelf-denial
Book:Lectures on systematic theology, embracing moral government, the atonement, etc. Revised, enlarged, and partly re-written by the Author ... Edited ... by G. Redford
Create image

“We may gamble on outsmarting the law; we may even gamble on the leniency of man and the mercy of God-but no man ever won a gamble with his own conscience. Even should he think he has beaten his conscience into submission, his misdeeds still leave their mark upon him. Anyone who gambles against this fact has already lost his gamble.”

ThinkingMenShouldMayStillsFactsLawLostLosingConscienceMercyMarkBeatenSubmissionGambleMercy Of GodMisdeedsLeniency
Author:Sidney Greenberg
Create image

“What I know for sure is that it's only when you make the process your goal that the big dream can follow. That doesn't necessarily mean your process will necessarily lead you to wealth or fame. In fact, your dream may have nothing to do with tangible prosperity and everything to do with creating a life filled with joy, one with no regrets and a clear conscience. I've learned that wealth is a tool that gives you choices, but it can't compensate for a life not fully lived and it certainly can't create a sense of peace within you.”

KnowsGivingMayMeanFactsDreamBigsJoyChoicesProcessGoalWealthClearRegretFameCreatingConscienceToolsFilledProsperityYour DreamsI've LearnedWithin YouTangibleNo RegretsPeace WithinClear Conscience
Author:Oprah Winfrey
Create image