42 Inspiring Conscience Quotes

In the bustling symphony of life, our conscience serves as a subtle yet powerful guide, steering us through the complex labyrinth of right and wrong. It is that inner voice, gentle yet insistent, urging us to align our actions with our principles. The wisdom of history's most profound thinkers and leaders on the subject of conscience offers us invaluable insights, resonating through time with their enduring truth. In this collection, we've gathered 42 of the most inspiring quotes on conscience. Whether seeking guidance or a moment of reflection, these carefully selected words aim to illuminate the path of integrity and moral clarity. Dive into this treasury of wisdom and allow these quotes to invigorate your spirit and inspire your journey.

1. “If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.” - Charlotte Brontë

2. “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.” - George Washington

3. “Science without conscience is the soul's perdition.” - Francois Rabelais

4. “A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.” - Mark Twain

5. “The only tyrant I accept in this world is the 'still small voice' within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of being a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority.” - Mahatma Gandhi

6. “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” - John Milton

7. “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” - Leo Tolstoy

8. “Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.” - Oscar Wilde

9. “Since then your sere Majesty and your Lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen."(Reply to the Diet of Worms, April 18, 1521)” - Martin Luther

10. “Does changing for the better absolve you of all the wicked shit you did before?No. March fills my head like a warm glow. Instead you receive the twin delights of guilt and regret.” - Ann Aguirre

11. “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

12. “Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.Listen to it carefully.” - Richard Bach

13. “We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.” - Michel de Montaigne

14. “Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. ” - Carl Gustav Jung

15. “The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.” - Gaylord Nelson

16. “Dead men cannot take effective action; their power of influence on others lasts only till the grave. Deeds and actions that energise others belong only to the living. Well, then, look at the facts in this case. The Saviour is working mightily among men, every day He is invisibly persuading numbers of people all over the world, both within and beyond the Greek-speaking world, to accept His faith and be obedient to His teaching. Can anyone, in face of this, still doubt that He has risen and lives, or rather that He is Himself the Life? Does a dead man prick the consciences of men...?” - St. Athanasius

17. “There is no conscience in a real war.” - Toba Beta [Betelgeuse Incident]

18. “Between the radiant white of a clear conscience and the coal black of a conscience sullied by sin lie many shades of gray--where most of us live our lives. Not perfect but not beyond redemption.” - Sherry L. Hoppe

19. “I do not believe anyone can be perfectly well, who has a brain and a heart” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

20. “Conscience defined by the elders,passed on to the next generations.” - Toba Beta

21. “True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them the desire to do right is precisely the same.” - Robert E. Lee

22. “In his creative work the artist is dependent on sources and resources deriving from the spiritual unconscious.” - Viktor E. Frankl

23. “Isana laughed. "And you, lady? Are you a woman of conscience or of ambition?"The lady smiled. "That's a question rarely asked here at court.""And why is that?""Because a woman of conscience would tell you that she is a person of conscience. A woman of ambition would tell you that she is a person of conscience—only much more convincingly.” - Jim Butcher

24. “When spontaneous demoralizing thoughts seep into your conscience, don't trip...allowing them to fester. These are random tests of your conviction and determination. Large or small, your reaction to such intrusions is a defining moment for which no one else, but you, can mitigate.” - T.F. Hodge

25. “It's a sin only if conscience confirmed it.” - Toba Beta

26. “Feel what it's like to truly starve, and I guarantee that you'll forever think twice before wasting food.” - Criss Jami

27. “Good girls hold their heads high by daylight, Their grace and their virtue soaring with kites,While bad girls slink along in their shame-Everyone stares at them, everyone blames.But those bad girls sleep soundly at night,Ne'er do their consciences wake them in a fright,While our good girls toss and they turn-They lay awake for those who will burn.” - Anna Godbersen

28. “A good conscience is eight parts of courage.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

29. “This magical, marvelous food on our plate, this sustenance we absorb, has a story to tell. It has a journey. It leaves a footprint. It leaves a legacy. To eat with reckless abandon, without conscience, without knowledge; folks, this ain't normal.” - Joel Salatin

30. “I am anchored on a resolve you cannot shake. My heart, my conscience shall dispose of my hand -- they only. Know this at last.” - Charlotte Brontë

31. “True law, the code of justice, the essence of our sensations of right and wrong, is the conscience of society. It has taken thousands of years to develop, and it is the greatest, the most distinguishing quality which has developed with mankind ... If we can touch God at all, where do we touch him save in the conscience? And what is the conscience of any man save his little fragment of the conscience of all men in all time?” - Walter Van Tilburg Clark

32. “The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power--and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition.But that's not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience.” - Barack Obama

33. “RICH I’m lamenting. I’ve lost my innocence.CROMWELL You lost that some time ago. If you’ve only just noticed, it can’t have been very important to you.” - Robert Bolt

34. “... what you think is right isn't the same as knowing what is right.” - E.A. Bucchianeri

35. “Wounds sustained for the sake of conscience carry their own balsam with the blow.” - Walter Scott

36. “I wasn't trying to work out my own ancestry. I was trying to get people to feel slavery. I was trying to get across the kind of emotional and psychological stones that slavery threw at people.” - Octavia E. Butler

37. “يا للإنسان! أيذبح في ذاكرته ذكريات لا يقوى على احتمالها؟ كنت أحسب أن فاقدي الضمير تتحجّر قلوبهم، فلا يشعرون بتأنيبه. فإذا الأمر مختلف. وإذا الإنسان أعجز من أن يقتل ضميره، فيقتل الذاكرة!” - إميل حبيبي

38. “Will wrestled with his conscience, grappled it to the ground and sat on it until he couldn't hear a squeak out of it.” - Nick Hornby

39. “In case you’re not bright enough to figure it out, there’s a real upside to having a sinner like me answer your phone. I lie, and your conscience stays clear.” - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

40. “Major, I do not know why God does the things He does, but I believe you have the same duty to God as you have always had: to follow the right path, to live your life with a clear conscience.” - Jeff Shaara

41. “To suffer is one thing; another thing is living with the photographed images of suffering, which does not necessarily strengthen conscience and the ability to be compassionate. It can also corrupt them. Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more - and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize.” - Susan Sontag

42. “Conscience, Christ, and the gift of faith make evil men uneasy in their sin. They feel that if they could drive Christ from the earth, they would be free from "moral inhibitions." They forget that it is their own nature and conscience which makes them feel that way. Being unable to drive God from the heavens, they would drive his ambassadors from the earth. In a lesser sphere, that is why many men sneer at virtue--because it makes vice uncomfortable.” - Fulton J. Sheen