Modesty is the conscience of the body.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
One should be more concerned about what his conscience whispers than about what other people shout.
—Indian Proverb
Conscience is the dog that can’t bite, but never stops barking.
—Common Proverb
The human consciousness is really homogeneous. There is no complete forgetting, even in death.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
In all the ages, three-fourths of the support of the great charities has been conscience money.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
When I contemplate the accumulation of guilt and remorse which, like a garbage-can, I carry through life, and which is fed not only by the lightest action but by the most harmless pleasure, I feel Man to be of all living things the most biologically incompetent and ill-organized. Why has he acquired a seventy years life-span only to poison it incurably by the mere being of himself? Why has he thrown Conscience, like a dead rat, to putrefy in the well?
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Conscience cannot be compelled.
—English Proverb
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
Tenderness of conscience is always to be distinguished from scrupulousness. The conscience cannot be kept too sensitive and tender; but scrupulousness arises from bodily or mental infirmity, and discovers itself in a multitude of ridiculous, superstitious, and painful feelings.
—Richard Cecil
It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The conscience is the most flexible material in the world. Today you cannot stretch it over a mole hill; while tomorrow it can hide a mountain.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
If a superior give any order to one who is under him which is against that man’s conscience, although he do not obey it yet he shall not be dismissed.
—Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Italian Monk, Founder of the Franciscan Order
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
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
Conscience is the voice of the soul, as the passions are the voice of the body.—No wonder they often contradict each other.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
In the commission of evil, fear no man so much as thyself.—Another is but one witness against thee; thou art a thousand.—Another thou mayst avoid, thyself thou canst not.—Wickedness is its own punishment.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
I am more afraid of my own heart than the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great Pope, Self.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
A bad conscience has a very good memory.
—Unknown
Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide. But sometimes, and oftenest at midnight, those dark receptacles are flung wide open. In an hour like this, when the mind has a passive sensibility, but no active strength; when the imagination is a mirror, imparting vividness to all ideas, without the power of selecting or controlling them; then pray that your grieves may slumber, and the brotherhood of remorse not break their chain.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Better a good conscience without wisdom than wisdom without a good conscience.
—German Proverb
Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
My dominion ends where that of conscience begins.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Labor to keep alive that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Conscience: The inner voice which warns us that someone is looking.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
If any speak ill of thee, flee home to thy own conscience, and examine thy heart: if thou be guilty, it is a just correction; if not guilty, it is a fair instruction: make use of both; so shalt thou distil honey out of gall, and out of an open enemy create a secret friend.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
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