A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Conscience is a man’s compass.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
No matter how big a house you have or how slick a car you drive, the only thing you can take with you at the end of your life is your conscience.
—Robin Sharma (b.1964) Canadian Writer, Motivational Speaker
The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
—Omar Bradley (1893–1981) American Military Leader
Conscience tells us that we ought to do right, but it does not tell us what right is — that we are taught by God’s word.
—Henry Clay Trumbull (1830–1903) American Army Chaplain, Evangelist
Seven Social Sins
Politics without principles
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
A man’s conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Be fearful only of thyself, and stand in awe of none more than of thine own conscience. — There is a Cato in every man — a severe censor of his manners. — And he that reverences this judge will seldom do anything he need repent of.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Conscience is not given to a man to instruct him in the right, but to prompt him to choose the right instead of the wrong when he is instructed as to what is right. It tells a man that he ought to do right, but does not tell him what is right. And if a man has made up his mind that a certain wrong course is the right one, the more he follows his conscience the more hopeless he is as a wrongdoer. One is pretty far gone is an evil way when he serves the devil conscientiously.
—Henry Clay Trumbull (1830–1903) American Army Chaplain, Evangelist
God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won’t.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
Our conscience is not the vessel of eternal verities. It grows with our social life, and a new social condition means a radical change in conscience.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
The chief requisites for a courtier are a flexible conscience and an inflexible politeness.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Writer
The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Conscience is justice’s best minister. It threatens, promises, rewards, and punishes, and keeps all under its control. — The busy must attend to its remonstrances; the most powerful submit to its reproof, and the angry endure its up-braidings. — While conscience is our friend, all is peace; but if once offended, farewell to the tranquil mind.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
A conscience without God is like a court without a judge.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.
—Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859) English Essayist, Critic
A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude.—If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it.—But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself?—Miserable is he who slights that witness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The man who acts never has any conscience; no one has any conscience but the man who thinks.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.
—Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (1885–1962) Danish Novelist, Short-story Writer
The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Most men are afraid of a bad name, but few fear their consciences.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) Roman Scholar, Encyclopedist
Guilty consciences always make people cowards.
—The Panchatantra Indian Collection of Fables and Folktales
Two things fill the mind with ever increasing wonder and awe. The more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
Conscience is our magnetic compass; reason our chart.
—Joseph Cook
Conscience and cowardice are really the same things.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Most of us follow our conscience as we follow a wheelbarrow. We push it in front of us in the direction we want to go.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Conscience is a great ledger book in which all our offences are written and registered, and which time reveals to the sense and feeling of the offender.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
He who commits a wrong will himself inevitably see the writing on the wall, though the world may not count him guilty.
—Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–89) English Poet, Writer
People talk about the conscience, but it seems to me one must just bring it up to a certain point and leave it there. You can let your conscience alone if you’re nice to the second housemaid.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.
—Michel Foucault (1926–84) French Philosopher, Critic, Historian
Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
No evil is intolerable but a guilty conscience.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Though the dungeon, the scourge, and the executioner be absent, the guilty mind can apply the goad and scorch with blows.
—Lucretius (c.99–55 BCE) Roman Epicurean Poet, Philosopher
There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience, or none at all.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
I think remorse ought to stop biting the consciences that feed it.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Labor to keep alive that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.
—Harper Lee (1926–2016) American Novelist
A man’s moral conscience is the curse he had to accept from the gods in order to gain from them the right to dream.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist