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Scruples Quotes

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Scruples Quotes

“The late 1920s were an age of islands, real and metaphorical. They were an age when Americans by thousands and tens of thousands were scheming to take the next boat for the South Seas or the West Indies, or better still for Paris, from which they could scatter to Majorca, Corsica, Capri or the isles of Greece. Paris itself was a modern city that seemed islanded in the past, and there were island countries, like Mexico, where Americans could feel that they had escaped from everything that oppressed them in a business civilization. Or without leaving home they could build themselves private islands of art or philosophy; or else - and this was a frequent solution - they could create social islands in the shadow of the skyscrapers, groups of close friends among whom they could live as unconstrainedly as in a Polynesian valley, live without moral scruples or modern conveniences, live in the pure moment, live gaily on gin and love and two lamb chops broiled over a coal fire in the grate. That was part of the Greenwich Village idea, and soon it was being copied in Boston, San Francisco, everywhere.”

LoveArtPhilosophyCivilizationPureParisIslandsMexicoIdealismGreeceSan FranciscoEscapeSocial LifeAmericansScruples1920sLost GenerationBoatsGreenwich VillageOppressiveIsles
Book:Exile's Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s
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“Spirits are not finely touched But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence But like a thrifty goddess she determines Herself the glory of a creditor,Both thanks and use.”

UseSpiritSpiritualityIssuesFineGloryExcellenceDetermineThanksTouchedGoddessSmallestCreditorsScruplesThrifty
Book:Comedies of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)
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“Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman passes the bounds of propriety for our sakes, and throws herself unblushingly at our heads, we conclude it is either from a sudden and violent liking, or from extraordinary merit on our parts, either of which is enough to turn any man's head who has a single spark of gallantry or vanity in his composition.”

IfsMenMayEnoughTurnsWomenExtraordinaryBoundsSakeViolentReputationVanityMeritSparksModestyCompositionProprietyScruplesGallantryCoquette
Author:William Hazlitt
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“Many [hooligans] discover to their shame that they have scruples; they have roots and, greatest disadvantage of all, they have hope. The fathers superior of the order do not try to influence their children in Satan; they merely shake their heads in sorrow. They know that the apostate must work out his own damnation.”

KnowsTryingChildrenOrderFatherInfluenceSorrowRootsShameWork OutSuperiorsSatanShakesDisadvantagesHaving HopeDamnationScruples
Author:Quentin Crisp
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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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“Some People are not to be persuaded to taste of any Creatures they have daily seen and been acquainted with, while they were alive; others extend their Scruple no further than to their own Poultry, and refuse to eat what they fed and took care of themselves; yet all of them will feed heartily and without Remorse on Beef, Mutton and Fowls when they are bought in the Market.”

PeopleCareAliveTasteCreaturesRefuseFedsRemorseBeefScruplesFowlPoultryMutton
Author:Bernard de Mandeville
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“If a woman knows a man to be a libertine, yet will, without scruple, give him her company, he will think half the ceremony between them is over; and will probably only want an opportunity to make her repent of her confidence in him.”

IfsThinkingKnowsMenWantGivingOpportunityHalfCompanyRepentCeremonyScruplesLibertine
Book:A collection of the moral and instructive sentiments, maxims, cautions, and reflexions, contained in the histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison: Digested under proper heads, with references to the volume, ...
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“For the rich men without scruple drew the estate into their own hands, excluding the rightful heirs from their succession; and all the wealth being centred upon the few, the generality were poor and miserable. Honourable pursuits, for which there was no longer leisure, were neglected; the state was filled with sordid business, and with hatred and envy of the rich.”

MenStatesHandsPoliticsWealthPoorEconomyRichHatredFilledEnvyPursuitMiserableLiberalismLeisureEstatesNeglectedSuccessionRich ManHeirsGeneralitiesScruples
Book:The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Volume II: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant.”

UnderstandingDoubtWonderfulGoldInstantScruples
Book:The works of Joseph Addison: including the whole contents of Bp. Hurd's edition, with letters and other pieces not found in any previous collection; and Macaulay's essay on his life and works
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“I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple; Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys, That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander, Go antickly, and show outward hideousness, And speak off half a dozen dangerous words, How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst; And this is all.”

IfsKnowsShowsMightLyingSpeakHurtHalfEnemyBoysFashionDangerousRingsDozenBoastSlanderScruplesCogs
Book:Much ado about nothing. Love's labour's lost. Midsummer night's dream. Merchant of Venice. As you like it. Taming of the shrew. All's well that ends well. Twelfth night
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“I had always been scrupulously careful to avoid the smallest suggestion of infant indoctrination, which I think is ultimately responsible for much of the evil in the world. Others, less close to her, showed no such scruples, which upset me, as I very much wanted her, as I want all children, to make up her own mind freely when she became old enough to do so. I would encourage her to think, without telling her what to think.”

ThinkingWorldWantMindChildrenEnoughWantedEvilAtheismResponsibleCarefulPositive AtheismUpsetSmallestSuggestionsInfantIndoctrinationScruples
Book:A Devil's Chaplain
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“This surface good-nature which captivates a new acquaintance and is no bar to treachery, which knows no scruple and is never at fault for an excuse, which makes an outcry at the wound which it condones, is one of the most distinctive features of the journalist. This camaraderie (the word is a stroke of genius) corrodes the noblest minds; it eats into their pride like rust, kills the germ of great deeds, and lends a sanction to moral cowardice.”

KnowsMindWorkMoralPrideGeniusFaultsDeedsExcuseSurfaceWoundsBarsJournalistFeaturesCowardiceStrokesAcquaintanceSanctionsGermsDistinctiveRustTreacheryCamaraderieScruplesGood NatureNew Acquaintances
Author:Honore de Balzac
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“To invent without scruple a new principle to every new phenomenon, instead of adapting it to the old; to overload our hypothesis with a variety of this kind, are certain proofs that none of these principles is the just one, and that we only desire, by a number of falsehoods, to cover our ignorance of the truth.”

KindTruthDesireCertainNumbersPrinciplesIgnoranceProofVarietyJust OnePhenomenonFalsehoodHypothesisAdaptingScruplesOverload
Book:A Treatise of Human Nature
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“The conduct of a man, who studies philosophy in this careless manner, is more truly sceptical than that of any one, who feeling inhimself an inclination to it, is yet so over-whelm'd with doubts and scruples, as totally to reject it. A true sceptic will be diffident of his philosophical doubts, as well as of his philosophical conviction; and will never refuse any innocent satisfaction, which offers itself, upon account of either of them.”

MenWellsPhilosophyFeelingsStudyDoubtOffersAccountsPhilosophicalSatisfactionRefuseConvictionInnocentRejectsSkepticismInclinationCarelessScruplesSceptic
Book:A Treatise of Human Nature
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“I'm a very smart guy. I haven't a feeling or a scruple in the world. All I have the itch for is money. I am so money greedy that for twenty-five bucks a day and expenses, mostly gasoline and whisky, I do my thinking myself, what there is of it; I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops . . . I dodge bullets and eat saps, and say thank you very much, if you have any more trouble, I hope you'll think of me, I'll just leave one of my cards in case anything comes up.”

IfsThinkingWorldWholeFeelingsGuyCasesFiveRiskTroubleHavensSmartHatredTwentiesCome UpCardsExpensesCopBulletsGreedyBucksTwenty FiveThink Of MeGasolineSapSaying Thank YouVery SmartWhiskyDodgeScruplesSmart Guy
Author:Raymond Chandler
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“Every age and every nation has certain characteristic vices, which prevail almost universally, which scarcely any person scruples to avow, and which even rigid moralists but faintly censure. Succeeding generations change the fashion of their morals with the fashion of their hats and their coaches; take some other kind of wickedness under their patronage, and wonder at the depravity of their ancestors.”

KindPersonsAgeCertainNationsWonderMoralGenerationsFashionMoralitySucceedVicesCoachesCharacteristicsHatsAncestorWickednessDepravityCensureMoralistScruplesPatronage
Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
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“The tourist debauches the great monuments of antiquity, a comic figure, always inapt in his comments, incongruous in his appearance; ...avarice and deceit attack him at every step; the shops that he patronizes are full of forgeries... But we need feel no scruple or twinge of uncertainty; 'we' are travelers and cosmopolitans; the tourist is the other fellow.”

NeedsFeelsStepsFiguresFellowsAppearanceComicUncertaintyShopsDeceitCommentTravelerMonumentTouristsAvariceEvery StepAntiquityScruplesForgery
Author:Evelyn Waugh
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“If we are to include the outer and the inner struggle in a conception more definite than that of conflict in general, we must employ some such phrase as 'spiritual force.' This will mean whatever forces act in the human spirit, whether good or evil, whether personal passion or impersonal principle; doubts, desires, scruples, ideas-whatever can animate, shake, possess, and drive a man's soul. [19]In a Shakespearean tragedy some such forces are shown in conflict.”

IfsMenHumansMeanIdeasSoulSpiritualSpiritDesirePassionEvilForcePrinciplesStruggleDoubtConflictTragedyPhrasesShakesConceptionDefiniteHuman SpiritScruplesInner StruggleShakespearean Tragedy
Book:Shakespearean Tragedy
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