Best conscience & individual Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Two Sermons Preached Before the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society in Boston: On the 14th and 21st of November, 1852, on Leaving Their Old and Entering a New Place of Worship

“We respect the individual conscience of every American on the painful issue of abortion, but believe as a matter of law that this decision should be left to a woman, her conscience, her doctor and her God. But abortion should not only be be safe and legal, it should be rare.”

Should Believe Matter Law Individual Left Decision Issues Safe Conscience Doctors Painful Abortion

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995

“Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.”

Should Government Evil Individual Forget Mankind Conscience Judgement Anarchist Usurpation

Author:William Godwin

“Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.”

Firsts Doe Individual Steps Violence Conscience Collectives First Steps Totalitarianism

Author:Hermann Hesse

“It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.”

Matter Government Purpose Individual Left Sides Religious Prayer Taken Atheism Citizens Exercise Conscience Function Mere Positive Atheism Instance Sole Secular Acknowledgment

Author:Barbara Brandriff Crabb

“The establishment of religious freedom was no less momentous an achievement than the clearing of the great forest or the winning of independence, for the twin doctrines of separation of church and state and liberty of individual conscience are the marrow of our democracy, if not indeed America's most magnificent contribution to the freeing of Western man.”

“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.”

“It takes courage to have a conscience when you seem to see others getting something tangible out of not bothering to struggle with the morality of a situation. It gets frustrating and demoralizing. This is precisely where character comes in. All throughout history special people have felt compelled to do what they objectively saw as right and good - even in the face of humiliation or rejection or expulsion or torture or death. That is because they believed that certain ideas were more important than individual well-being.”

“There is seemingly no biological benefit to acting with conscience; if there were, only moral individuals would survive and procreate. Sadly, we know that's not true. The benefit of conscience is that you won't suffer guilt (private) or shame (public), and that by your own self-imposed definition, you are a moral human, a special kind of animal who takes unique pride in elevating him/herself above the termites.”

Source: How Could You Do That?!: Abdication of Character, Courage, Consci

“The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives. The failure of Prohibition proves the futility of such an attempt when a majority or even a substantial minority happens to disagree. Some questions may be inherently individual ones, or people may be sharply divided about whether they are. In such cases, like Prohibition and abortion, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the conscience of the individual, not the coercive power of the state.”

People Want May Real States Government Happens Individual Roles Cases Citizens Prove Conscience Majority Appeals Abortion Minorities Divided Disagree Prohibition Futility Transgression

Author:Edward Kennedy

“Freedom of conscience is a natural right, both antecedent and superior to all human laws and institutions whatever; a right which laws never gave and a right which laws can never take away.”

Humans Reason Law Individual Natural Justice Responsibility Conscience Constitution Independence Institutions Superiors Individual Rights Free Thought

Author:John Goodwin

“There is a very holy and a very terrible isolation for the conscience of every man who seeks to read the destiny in affairs for others as well as for himself, for a nation as well as for individuals. That privacy no man can intrude upon. That lonely search of the spirit for the right perhaps no man can assist.”

Men Wells Spirit Individual Nations Destiny Loneliness Terrible Holy Conscience Lonely Affair Every Man Isolation Privacy

Book:Wilson, Volume V: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace, 1916-1917

Source: Wilson, Volume V: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace, 1916-1917

“The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul--our Protestant idea, the right of individual conscience and judgment--our republican idea, individual citizenship. In discussing the rights of woman, we are to consider, first, what belongs to her as an individual, in a world of her own, the arbiter of her own destiny, an imaginary Robinson Crusoe with her woman Friday on a solitary island. Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness.”

“Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. Nothing adds such dignity to character as the recognition of one's self-sovereignty; the right to an equal place, everywhere conceded--a place earned by personal merit, not an artificial attainment by inheritance, wealth, family and position.”

“Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, individually and in community, as our consciences dictate. But religious liberty, by its nature, transcends places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families.”

Mean Individual Community Religious Liberty Worship Conscience Spheres Religious Freedom Worship God Religious Liberty Places Of Worship

Book:The Allure of Goodness and Love: Pope Francis in the United States Complete Texts

Source: The Allure of Goodness and Love: Pope Francis in the United States Complete Texts

“Anyone of conscience could come look at my book and see it as an esoteric oddity or be intrigued by it. It could happen either way on a thousand different little decisions each individual might make.”

Way Looks Littles Book Different Might Happens Individual Decision Thousand Conscience Intrigued Esoteric Oddities

Author:John Hodgman

“Claiming for ourselves liberty of conscience, liberty to worship, we shall see to it that every other individual enjoys the same right.”

Individual Enjoy Liberty Worship Conscience

Author:James Larkin

“In the civil society, the individual is recognized and accepted as more than an abstract statistic or faceless member of some group; rather, he is a unique, spiritual being with a soul and a conscience.”

Soul Spiritual Individual Groups Members Unique Conscience Accepted Abstract Civil Society Spiritual Beings Faceless

Author:Mark Levin

“The question of religion was a matter for each individual's conscience, and in a great many cases was the outcome of birth or residence in a certain geographical area.”

Matter Certain Individual Cases Birth Conscience Areas Outcomes Great Men Residence

Author:James Larkin

“Freedom is necessary for two reasons. It's necessary for the individual, because the individual, no matter how good the society is, every individual has hopes, fears, ambitions, creative urges, that transcend the purposes of his society. Therefore we have a long history of freedom, where people try to extricate themselves from tyranny for the sake of art, for the sake of science, for the sake of religion, for the sake of the conscience of the individual - this freedom is necessary for the individual.”

People Trying Long Art Two Matter Reason Purpose Individual Creative Ambition Conscience Sake Tyranny Urges Having Hope

Author:Reinhold Niebuhr

“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.”

“The crucial thing is to arouse the awareness that as a matter of human conscience we can never permit the people of any country to fall victim to nuclear weapons, and for each individual to express their refusal to continue living in the shadow of the threat they pose.”

People Humans Country Matter Fall Individual Awareness Weapons Conscience Shadow Victim Threat Nuclear Permit Crucial Nuclear Weapons Refusal

Author:Daisaku Ikeda

“The individual who dares commit a crime is guilty in a two-fold sense; first, he is guilty against human conscience, and, above all, he is guilty against the State in arrogating to himself one of its most precious privileges.”

Firsts Humans Two States Individual Crime Conscience Privilege Dare Commit Guilty Folds

Book:The Selected Works of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin

Source: The Selected Works of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin

“The individual cannot exist on his/her own and the collectivism should respect freedom of conscience. My struggle is about the freedom of thought.”

Should Individual Struggle Conscience Freedom Of Thought Collectivism My Struggle

Author:Asghar Ali Engineer

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”

“If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.”

Ifs Mind Ideas Matter Individual Rooms Moral Vision Knowledge Courage Learning Intellectual Conscience Management Committees Confronting Moral Compass Moral Life

Author:Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

“Storytelling awakens us to that which is real. Honest. . . . it transcends the individual. . . . Those things that are most personal are most general, and are, in turn, most trusted. Stories bind. . . . They are basic to who we are. A story composite personality which grows out of its community. It maintains a stability within that community, providing common knowledge as to how things are, how things should be -- knowledge based on experience. These stories become the conscience of the group. They belong to everyone.”

Should Real Stories Turns Individual Grows Community Common Groups Honest Personality Conscience Storytelling Who We Are Stability Trusted Providing Composites Common Knowledge

Author:Terry Tempest Williams

“Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.”

“The word "truth" itself ceases to have its old meaning. It describes no longer something to be found, with the individual conscience as the sole arbiter of whether in any particular instance the evidence (or the standing of those proclaiming it) warrants a belief; it becomes something to be laid down by authority, something which has to believed in the interest of unity of the organized effort and which may have to be altered as the exigencies of this organized effort require it.”

May Found Individual Belief Interest Effort Particular Authority Conscience Evidence Standing Unity Cease Instance Organized Sole Altered Warrants Proclaiming Arbiter

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless. It enslaves him almost before he has tasted freedom. The 'ologies' will tell you how its done Theology calls it building a conscience or developing a spirit of selflessness. Psychology calls it the growth of the superego. Considering how long society has been at it, you'd expect a better job. But the campaigns have been badly planned and the victory has never been secured.”

Long Has Beens Done Jobs Spirit Individual Growth Psychology Building Victory Conscience Campaigns Theology Developing Helpless Considering Selflessness Secured Better Jobs Superego

Author:B. F. Skinner

“To enslave an individual troubles your consciences, Archivist, but to enslave a clone is no more troubling than owning the latest six-wheeler ford, ethically. Because you cannot discern our differences, you assume we have none. But make no mistake: even same-stem fabricants cultured in the same wombtank are as singular as snowflakes.”

Individual Differences Mistake Trouble Six Conscience Assuming Stem Snowflake Archivists

Author:David Mitchell

“He’d only ever seen a gun once, a smaller one on the hip of that old deputy, a gun he’d always figured was more for show. He stuffed a fistful of deadly rounds in his pocket, thinking how each one could end an individual life, and understanding why such things were forbidden. Killing a man should be harder than waving a length of pipe in their direction. It should take long enough for one’s conscience to get in the way.”

“Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out their conscience, thus helping bring the collective conscience to life.”

Life Helping Motivational Individual Peace Powerful Acting Conscience Collectives Ubuntu Acting Out

Author:Norman Cousins

“Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.”

Individual Community Morality Ethics Conscience Individuality Preservation Guardian

Book:The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection

Source: The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection

“Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.”

Ifs Form Spirit Individual Justice Conscience Accidents Bars Justified

Book:The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion

Source: The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion

“Meditation is the art of awareness. And once you are aware, out of your awareness your actions will arise - not out of conscience. Conscience is cultivated by others, by the vested interests, by the establishment. Consciousness is yours. It is individual, it is not collective. Conscience is part of the mob psychology. Consciousness gives you dignity because it gives you individuality. It gives you rebellion, it makes you capable of saying yes or no of your own accord. There is no foreign agency manipulating you in the name of religion, morality, etcetera.”