I should love to satisfy all, if I possibly can; but in trying to satisfy all, I may be able to satisfy none. I have, therefore, arrived at the conclusion that the best course is to satisfy one’s own conscience and leave the world to form its own judgment, favorable or otherwise.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
A wounded conscience is able to unparadise paradise itself.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
Conscience has nothing to do as lawgiver or judge; but is a witness against me if I do wrong, and which approves if I do right. To act against conscience is to act against reason and God’s Law.
—Austin Phelps (1820–90) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Educator, Theologian
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
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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
Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Conscience is the dog that can’t bite, but never stops barking.
—Common Proverb
Political and professional fame cannot last forever, but a conscience void of offence before God and man is an inheritance for eternity. Religion, therefore, is a necessary, an indispensable element in any great human character. There is no living without it. Religion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, and holds him to his throne. If that tie is sundered or broken, he floats away a worthless atom in the universe, its proper attractions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation and death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describes in so terse but terrific a manner, as “living without hope and without God in the world.” Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away from the purposes of his creation.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Whatever is done without ostentation, and without the people being witnesses of it, is, in my opinion, most praiseworthy: not that the public eye should be entirely avoided, for good actions desire to be placed in the light; but notwithstanding this, the greatest theater for virtue is conscience.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Conscience is the only clue that will eternally guide a man clear of all doubts and inconsistencies
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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
Religions are the great fairy tales of conscience.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Better a good conscience without wisdom than wisdom without a good conscience.
—German Proverb
The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.
—James A. Garfield (1831–81) American Head of State, Lawyer, Educator
Conscience is as good as a thousand witnesses.
—Italian Proverb
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns me for a villain.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
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
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
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
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Conscience: A small, still voice that makes minority reports.
—Franklin P. Adams (1881–1960) American Columnist, Radio Personality, Author
What other dungeon is so dark as one’s own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one’s self!
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Don’t hang your conscience on your back.
—Chinese Proverb
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
Again and again I am brought up against it, and again and again I resist it: I don’t want to believe it, even though it is almost palpable: the vast majority lack an intellectual conscience; indeed, it often seems to me that to demand such a thing is to be in the most populous cities as solitary as in the desert.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Conscience serves us especially to judge of the actions of others.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
Modesty is the conscience of the body.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
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
A clear conscience is a soft pillow.
—Common Proverb
Stay up and really burn the midnight oil. There are no compromises.
—Leontyne Price (b.1927) American Opera Singer
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
That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price on its goods.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
A clear conscience is a good pillow.
—French Proverb
Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
Conscience is merely our own judgment of the right or wrong of our actions, and so can never be a safe guide unless enlightened by the word of God.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Conscience is a blushing, shamefaced spirit than mutinies in a man’s bosom; it fills one full of obstacles.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
There is no witness so terrible-no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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
A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Conscience, man’s moral medicine chest.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist