Conscience

"Omatunto kun torpan tunkio. (Ähtäri) (KVL)"

"We never do evil so effectually as when we are led to do it by a false principle of conscience."

"It is quite certain that, if from childhood men were to begin to follow the first intimations of conscience, honestly to obey them and carry them out into act, the power of conscience would be so strengthened and improved within them, that it would soon become, what it evidently is intended to be, "a connecting principle between the creature and the Creator.""

"Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust, Die eine will sich von der andern trennen."

"La conscience des mourants calomnie leur vie."

"An old historian says about the Roman armies that marched through a country, burning and destroying every living thing, "They make a solitude, and they call it peace." And so men do with their consciences. They stifle them, sear them, forcibly silence them, somehow or other; and then, when there is a dead stillness in the heart, broken by no voice of either approbation or blame, but doleful, like the unnatural quiet of a deserted city, then they say, "It is peace;" and the man's uncontrolled passions and unbridled desires dwell solitary in the fortress of his own spirit! You may almost attain to that."

"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action."

"Conscience is but a word that cowards use, Devis'd at first to keep the strong in awe; Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law."

"The light of conscience ... enters the eyes of the soul, as the light of the sun enters the eyes of the body; and to open the former requires no greater effort than to open the latter."

"Oh, Conscience! Conscience! man's most faithful friend, Him canst thou comfort, ease, relieve, defend; But if he will thy friendly checks forego, Thou art, oh! woe for me, his deadliest foe!"

"Some scruple rose, but thus he eas'd his thought, "I'll now give sixpence where I gave a groat; Where once I went to church, I'll now go twice— And am so clear too of all other vice.""

"Sic vive cum hominibus, tanquem deus videat; sic loquere cum deo, tanquam homines audiant."

"Be fearful only of thyself, and stand in awe of none more than thine own conscience."

"Every one of us, whatever his speculative opinions, knows better than he practices, and recognizes a better law than he obeys."

"Better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstacy."

"I know myself now; and I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities; A still and quiet conscience."

"The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul! Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st, And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!"

"My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain."

"Trust that man in nothing who has not a Conscience in everything."

"How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only by answering such questions does the conscience truly define itself."

"A minority may do for a society what the conscience does for an individual."

"The Past lives o'er again In its effects, and to the guilty spirit The ever-frowning Present is its image."

"Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo."

"True, conscious Honour is to feel no sin, He's arm'd without that's innocent within; Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of Brass."

"Let Joy or Ease, let Affluence or Content, And the gay Conscience of a life well spent, Calm ev'ry thought, inspirit ev'ry grace, Glow in thy heart, and smile upon thy face."

"What Conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do; This teach me more than Hell to shun, That more than Heav'n pursue."

"Men who can hear the Decalogue and feel No self-reproach."

"A good conscience is the palace of Christ; the temple of the Holy Ghost; the paradise of delight; the standing Sabbath of the saints."

"The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul."

"Conscience is God's vicegerent in the soul."

"I know thou art religious, And hast a thing within thee called conscience, With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies, Which I have seen thee careful to observe."

"The play's the thing, Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."

"They are our outward consciences."

"Now, if you can blush and cry, "guilty," cardinal, You'll show a little honesty."

"Well, my conscience says, "Launcelot, budge not." "Budge," says the fiend: "budge not," says my conscience. "Conscience," say I, "you counsel well." "Fiend," say I, "you counsel well.""

"I hate the murderer, love him murdered. The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour, But neither my good word nor princely favour: With Cain go wander through shades of night, And never show thy head by day nor light."

"'Tis a blushing shamefast spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles."

"Soft, I did but dream. O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!"

"The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error."

"The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it, but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it."

"And I know of the Future Judgment, How dreadful so'er it be, That to sit alone with my Conscience Will be Judgment enough for me."

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward."

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called Conscience."

"Thus it was not money but conscience that had propelled me on this journey. Conscience, that crabbed and ecclesiastical nag, which inevitably spoke, whether I heeded it or not, in a voice much like my mother’s."

"There is no future pang Can deal that justice on the self condemn'd He deals on his own soul."

"Yet still there whispers the small voice within, Heard through Gain's silence, and o'er Glory's din; Whatever creed be taught or land be trod, Man's conscience is the oracle of God."

"A cleere conscience is a sure carde."

"Whom conscience, ne'er asleep, Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep."

"One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas."

"Hic murus aeneus esto, Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa."