A magazine editor recently asked me to sit down on my 40th birthday and write an article on the most important things I had learned in my first 40 years. I told him that the chief thing I had learned was that the copybook maxims are true, but that too many people forget this once they go out into the heat and hustle and bustle of the battle of life and only realize their truth once one foot is beginning to slip into the grave. The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
If a dog will not come to you after he has looked you in the face, you ought to go home and examine your conscience.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
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
There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
—French Proverb
There is no class of men so difficult to be managed in a state as those whose intentions are honest, but whose consciences are bewitched.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
In this electronic age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving toward the technological extension of consciousness.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Now is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream. You don’t need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach
Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a necessary evil, it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
Conscience is the nest where all good is hatched.
—Welsh Proverb
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
Be the master of your will, and the slave of your conscience.
—Yiddish Proverb
Money is a bottomless sea, in which honor, conscience, and truth may be drowned.
—Ivan Kozlov (1779–1840) Russian Poet, Translator
Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-born British Playwright, Poet, Elected Rep
A clear conscience is a good pillow.
—French Proverb
Conscience is the dog that can’t bite, but never stops barking.
—Common Proverb
Conscience, man’s moral medicine chest.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
No man ever offended his own conscience, but first or last it was revenged upon him for it.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
A man’s first duty is to his own conscience and honor; the party and country come second to that, and never first.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The innocent seldom find an uneasy pillow.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
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
Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.
—Michel Foucault (1926–84) French Philosopher, Critic, Historian
A good conscience is a continual feast.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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 good conscience is the palace of Christ; the temple of the Holy Ghost; the paradise of delight; the standing Sabbath of the saints.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won’t.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
The foundation of true joy is in the conscience.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Conscience: A small, still voice that makes minority reports.
—Franklin P. Adams (1881–1960) American Journalist, Columnist, Author
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