This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility.
Conscience | Individual | Judgment | Nothing | Responsibility |
The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination. We cannot pity those we have wronged, nor can we be indifferent toward them. We must hate and persecute them or else leave the door open to self-contempt.
Conscience | Contempt | Hate | Pity | Punishment | Self | Silence | Guilty |
Georg Hegel, fully Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
When we speak of conscience, it may easily be thought that in virtue of its form, which is abstract inwardness, conscience is at this point without more ado true conscience. But true conscience determines itself to will what is absolutely good and obligatory and is this self-determination.
Abstract | Conscience | Determination | Good | Self | Self-determination | Thought | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Thought |
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through a long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.
Chastity | Discretion | Fidelity | Instinct | Nobility | Skepticism | Surrender | Youth |
God never ordained you to have a conscience for others. Your conscience is for you, and for you alone.
Conscience | God |
Success surely comes with conscience in the long run, other things being equal. Capacity and fidelity are commercially profitable qualities.
Capacity | Conscience | Fidelity | Qualities | Success |
Love it is – not conscience – that is God’s regent in the human soul, because it can govern the soul as nothing else can.
Every one has conscience enough to hate; few have religion enough to love.
Conscience | Enough | Hate | Love | Religion |
Mirthfulness is in the mind, and you cannot get it out. It is the blessed spirit that God has sent in the mind to dust it, to enliven its dark places, and to drive asceticism, like a foul fiend, out at the back door. It is just as good in its placed as conscience or veneration. Praying can o more be made a substitute for smiling than smiling can for praying.
Asceticism | Conscience | God | Good | Mind | Spirit | God | Blessed |
Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau
When a man's conscience and the laws clash, it is his conscience that he must follow.
Conscience | Man |
Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau
What is morality but immemorial custom? Conscience is the chief of conservatives.
Conscience | Custom | Morality |
Preserve your conscience always soft and sensitive. If but one sin force its way into that tender part of the soul and dwell thee, the road is paved for a thousand iniquities.
Conscience | Force | Sin | Soul |
The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.
Conscience | Nothing | Worth |
Nonviolence does not mean acceptance, but resistance - not waiting, but acting. It is not at all passive. It involves strikes, boycotts, non-cooperation, mass demonstrations, and sabotage, as well as appeals to the conscience of the world, even to individuals in the oppressing group who might break away from their past.
Acceptance | Conscience | Cooperation | Past | Waiting | World |