Conscience Quotes - Page 35

• Conscience, the organ of feeling which dominates us and of the opinions which rule us, is presumptuous in the strong, timid in the weak and unfortunate, uneasy in the undecided.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Strong, Feelings, Opinion

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• Whena scandalousstory isbelieved againstone, thereis certainly no comfort like the conscience of having deserved it.

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Comfort

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• The governing idea of Hellenism is spontaneity of consciousness ; that of Hebraism, strictness of conscience .

  Matthew Arnold

  Ideas, Consciousness, Spontaneity

  Matthew Arnold, Stefan Collini (1993). “Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings”, p.20, Cambridge University Press

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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.

  Jane Addams

  Men, Thinking, Issues

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• Just as the law in civilized countries assumes that the voice of conscience tells everybody, "Thou shalt not kill," even though man's natural desires and inclinations may at times be murderous, so the law of Hitler's land demanded that the voice of conscience tell everybody: "Thou shalt kill," although the organizers of the massacres knew full well that murder is against the normal desires and inclinations of most people. Evil in the Third Reich had lost the quality by which most people recognize it - the quality of temptation.

  Hannah Arendt

  Country, Men, Law

  "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt, (Ch. VIII), 1963.

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• I'd shrink government in a minute, if I could shrink GM, Bank of America, and all these immoral corporations that operate by an undemocratic code, with no soul and no conscience.

  Jerry Brown

  America, Government, Soul

  "As Mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown Woos Business and Trumpets Order". www.wsj.com. August 10, 1999.

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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.

  Georges Bernanos

  Daughter, Dark, Past

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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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.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Honesty, Men, People

  "The Fable of the Bees". Book by Bernard Mandeville. Remark Q, pp. 207-208, 1732.

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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.

  Georg Brandes

  Powerful, Voice, Creating

  "An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism" by Georg Brandes, 1889.

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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.

  Eric Hoffer

  Respect, Freedom, Mean

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• We refuse to have our conscience bound by any work or law, so that by doing this or that we should be righteous, or leaving this or that undone we should be damned.

  Martin Luther

  Law, Leaving, Undone

  Martin Luther (2007). “Commentary on Galatians”, p.27, Lulu.com

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• Leave the ass burdened with laws behind in the valley. But your conscience, let it ascend with Isaac into the mountain.

  Martin Luther

  Law, Mountain, Valleys

  Martin Luther (2007). “Commentary on Galatians”, p.33, Lulu.com

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• The faith towards God in Christ must be sure and steadfast, that it may solace and make glad the conscience, and put it to rest. When a man has this certainty, he has overcome the serpent; but if he be doubtful of the doctrine, it is for him very dangerous to dispute with the devil.

  Martin Luther

  Men, Devil, Overcoming

  Martin Luther (1848). “The table talk or familiar discourse of Martin Luther, tr. by W. Hazlitt”, p.19

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• So far as discipline is concerned, freedom means not its absence but the use of higher and more rational forms as contrasted with those that are lower or less rational. A free discipline controls the individual by appealing to his reason and conscience, and therefore to his self-respect; while an unfree control works upon some lower phase of the mind, and so tends to degrade him. It is freedom to be disciplined in as rational a manner as you are fit for.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Mean, Self, Discipline

  Charles Horton Cooley (2017). “Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.370, Routledge

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• God has come again and again in various Forms, has spoken again and again in different words and different languages the Same One Truth - but how many are there that live up to it? Instead of making Truth the vitalbreath of his life, man compromises by making over and over againa mechanical religion of it - a handy staff to lean on in times of adversity, a soothing balm for his conscience or a tradition to be followed.

  Meher Baba

  Adversity, Men, Different

  "The Everything and the Nothing". Book by Meher Baba, 1963.

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• Organized religion has too often followed the road of other people's institutions. It has made adjustments, compromises, and surrenders to a materialistic civilization for the benefit of material security in spite of occasional twinges of conscience and moral protests. The result has been that today much of organized religion is materialistically solvent but spiritually bankrupt.

  Saul Alinsky

  Civilization, People, Religion

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• Although a person acting under authority performs actions that seem to violate standards of conscience, it would not be true to say that he loses his moral sense. Instead, it acquires a radically different focus. He does not respond with a moral sentiment to the actions he performs. Rather, his moral concern now shifts to a consideration of how well he is living up to the expectations that the authority has of him.

  Stanley Milgram

  Expectations, Focus, Acting

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• Tis not for us to warn a wilful sinner; We stay him not, but let him run his course, Till by misfortunes rous'd, his conscience wakes, And prompts him to appease th' offended gods.

  Aristophanes

  Running, Courses, Prompts

  Aristophanes, Thomas Mitchell (1822). “The Comedies of Aristophanes: Preface. The clouds. The wasps. The discat turned gentleman”, p.150

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• It is placing the Executive and the Movement in an absolutely wrong position to be taking your conscience round from body to body asking to be told what you ought to do with it.

  Ernest Bevin

  Asking, Movement, Body

  Labour Party Annual Conference Report, (p. 178), 1935.

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• Your man with a thin skin, a vehement ambition, a scrupulous conscience, and a sanguine desire for rapid improvement is never a happy, and seldom a fortunate politician.

  Anthony Trollope

  Ambition, Men, Desire

  Anthony Trollope (2016). “Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...”, p.4904, e-artnow (Open Publishing)

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• Would it not be better to go home and live at the family park all the year round, and hunt, and attend Quarter Sessions, and be able to declare morning and evening with a clear conscience that the country was going to the dogs? Such was the mental working of many a Conservative who supported Mr. Daubeny on this occasion.

  Anthony Trollope

  Country, Dog, Morning

  Anthony Trollope (2015). “The Palliser Novels: Complete Parliamentary Chronicles (All Six Novels in One Volume): Can You Forgive Her? + Phineas Finn + The Eustace Diamonds + Phineas Redux + The Prime Minister + The Duke’s Children”, p.1730, e-artnow

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• As a reformer the liberal is dissatisfied with things as they are because they violate his exceptionally tender conscience.... Liberalism does not advocate change for its own sake, but for the sake of something better in the direction of what he regards as good, namely, the maximum of liberty consistent with a regard for all men and all interests -- the general happiness based on peace and justice.

  Ralph Barton Perry

  Men, Justice, Liberty

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• The people are led to find in the productive apparatus the effective agent of thought and action to which their personal thought and action can and must be surrendered. And in this transfer, the apparatus also assumes the role of a moral agent. Conscience is absolved by reification.

  Herbert Marcuse

  People, Roles, Agents

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.82, Routledge

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• The Superego, in censoring the unconscious and in implanting conscience, also censors the censor.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Unconscious, Superego, Censoring

  Herbert Marcuse (2012). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.76, Beacon Press

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• Men's consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained. And whenever men have attempted any thing by this violent course, whether openly or by secret means, the issue has been pernicious, and the cause of great and wonderful innovations in the principallest and mightiest kingdoms and countries.

  Roger Williams

  Country, Mean, Men

  "The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience". Book by Roger Williams. "Address to Parliament", 1644.

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