“Of course you will say that I do not have the right, even if I had the power, to inflict that unreasonable conscience upon you; nor do I want you to inflict your conscience, however reasonable, however enlightened, upon me.” — Joan Didion, “The Insidious Ethic of Conscience,” The American Scholar (Autumn 1965)
“There is some sinister hysteria in the air out here tonight, some hint of the monstrous perversion to which any human idea can come. ‘I followed my conscience.’ ‘I did what I thought was right.’ How many madmen have said it and meant it? How many murderers?” — Joan Didion, “The Insidious Ethic of Conscience,” The American Scholar (Autumn 1965)
“The mind wins almost all its battles with conscience.” — Yahooey, Adviceland
“To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish.” — John Steinbeck, East of Eden
“They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience.” — Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
“Those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C. S. Lewis
“Those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C. S. Lewis, “God in the Dock”
“All a man can betray is his conscience.” — Joseph Conrad
“All a man can betray is his conscience.” — Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.” — H. L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
“Is he honest who resists his genius or conscience, only for the sake of present ease or gratification?” — William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“Everyone has his own conscience, and there should be no rules about how a conscience should function.” — Ernest Hemingway, “The Art of Fiction No. 21,” the Paris Review (Spring 1958)
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