CONSCIENCE

Related Subjects: Character, Confession, Guilt, Remorse, Repentance, Self-Knowledge, Sin

1. Rhetorically, yes; conscientiously, no.—BULWER-LYTTON, Caxtonia
   

2. O clear conscience, and upright! How doth a little failing wound thee sore.—DANTE, Purgatory
   

3. A good conscience is a sweet vessel, and a strong: whatsoever thou layest up in that, shall serve thee all thy life, and after: and that shall be thine acquittance and discharge. At thy last payment, when thou returnest thy spirit, into his hands that gave it; and then thou shalt have rendered to all their dues, when thou hast given the king honor; the poor, alms; thyself, peace; and God, thy soul.—JOHN DONNE, Sermons
   

4. The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the practice of all the physicians of all the countries in the world.—GLADSTONE
   

5. That fierce thing
   They call a conscience.—THOMAS HOOD, Lamia
   

6. The human being is nature's fall from a state of innocency; but it is not a decline, it is rather an ascent, in that a state of conscience is higher than a state of innocence.—THOMAS MANN, I Believe
   

7. Now conscience wakes despair
   That slumber'd—wakes the bitter memory
   Of what he was, what is, and what must be
   Worse.—MILTON, Paradise Lost
   

8. "As for conscience, Don Nuccio, I've got a conscience. But I'm also the manager of the lottery."—PIRANDELLO
   

9. Conscience cannot be compelled.—Proverb

10. Conscience is the chamber of justice.—Proverb

11. An evil conscience breaks many a man's neck.—Proverb
    

12. A guilty conscience needs no accuser.—Proverb
    

13. A guilty conscience never feels secure.—PUBLILIUS SYRUS, Sententiae
    

14. To a friend who defended the behavior of the upper chamber, saying "At least you find consciences there," Talleyrand replied: "Ah, yes, many, many consciences. Semonville, for example, has at least two."—PHILLIPS RUSSELL, The Glittering Century
    

15. The play's the thing
    Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

16. 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.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

17. Leave her to heaven
    And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
    To prick and sting her.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

18. Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth
    

19. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.—SHAKESPEARE, A Midsummer-Night's Dream
    

20. O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!—SHAKESPEARE, Richard III
    

21. My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
    And every tongue brings in a several tale,
    And every tale condemns me for a villain.—SHAKESPEARE, Richard III
    

22. Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.—SHERIDAN, The Duenna
    

23. To sit alone with my conscience
    Will be judgment enough for me.—STUBBS, Conscience and Future Judgment
    

24. Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, conscience.—WASHINGTON
    

25. Conscience and cowardice are really the same things.—OSCAR WILDE, The Picture of Dorian Gray
    

26. Conscience makes egotists of us all.—OSCAR WILDE, The Picture of Dorian Gray