Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Henry Fielding

A good conscience is never lawless in the worst regulated state, and will provide those laws for itself which the neglect of legislators had forgotten to supply.

Character | Conscience | Good | Neglect | Will |

Henry Fielding

We should not be too hasty in bestowing either our praise or censure on mankind, since we shall often find such a mixture of good and evil in the same character, that it may require a very accurate judgment and a very elaborate inquiry to determine on which side the balance turns.

Balance | Censure | Character | Evil | Good | Inquiry | Judgment | Mankind | Praise |

Benjamin Franklin

Keep Conscience clear, then never fear.

Character | Conscience | Fear |

Jose ben Halafta, or Rabbi Yose ben Halafta, aka Rabbi Yossi

One pang of conscience is worth more than many lashes.

Character | Conscience | Worth |

Charles Montagu Halifax, 1st Earl of Halifax, Lord Halifax

The memory and conscience never did, nor never will, agree about forgiving injuries.

Character | Conscience | Memory | Will |

Robert Hall

In matters of conscience first thoughts are best; in matters of prudence last thoughts are best.

Character | Conscience | Prudence | Prudence |

Thomas Hobbes

The secret thoughts of a man run over all things holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame, or blame; which verbal discourse cannot do, farther than the judgment shall approve of the time, place and persons.

Blame | Character | Grave | Judgment | Light | Man | Shame | Time |

Henry Home, Lord Kames

Men are guided less by conscience than by glory; and yet the shortest way to glory is to be guided by conscience.

Character | Conscience | Glory | Men |

Marina Horner

There is a vigilance and judgment about trifles which men only get by living in a creed; and those are the trifles of detail, on which the success of execution depends.

Character | Creed | Judgment | Men | Success | Trifles | Vigilance |

William James

In ethical, psychological and aesthetic matters, to give a clear reason for one’s judgment is universally recognized as a mark of rare genius. The helplessness of uneducated people account for their likes and dislikes is often ludicrous.

Aesthetic | Character | Genius | Judgment | People | Reason |

Thomas Hughes

The conscience of every man recognizes courage as the foundation of manliness, and manliness as the perfection of human character.

Character | Conscience | Courage | Man | Manliness | Perfection |

Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla

Heaven and hell are states of mind. The kingdom of heaven is within you. You create your own heaven or hell. The anguish of a personal hell can serve to strengthen you if you will let it. Judgment day takes place every moment of your life.

Character | Day | Heaven | Hell | Judgment | Life | Life | Mind | Will |

Anna Jameson

Never was the voice of conscience silenced without retribution.

Character | Conscience |

Søren Kierkegaard, fully Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

The God-relationship determines what love is between man and man, then love is kept from pausing in any self-deception or illusion, while certainly the demand for self-abnegation and sacrifice is again made more infinite. The love which does not lead to God, the love which does not have this as its sole goal, to lead the lovers to love God, stops at the purely human judgment as to what love and what love’s sacrifice and submission are; it stops and thereby escapes the possibility of the last and most terrifying horror of the collision: that in the love relationship there are infinite differences in the idea of what love is.

Character | God | Illusion | Judgment | Love | Man | Relationship | Sacrifice | Self | Self-deception | Submission |

Søren Kierkegaard, fully Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

A man could not have anything upon his conscience if God did not exist, for the relationship between the individual and God, the God-relationship, is the conscience, and that is why it is so terrible to have even the least thing upon one’s conscience, because one is immediately conscious of the infinite weight of God.

Character | Conscience | God | Individual | Man | Relationship | God |

Saint Lambert or Landebertus, aka Lambert of Maastricht NULL

We cheat ourselves in order to enjoy a calm conscience without possessing virtue.

Character | Conscience | Order | Virtue | Virtue |

Walter Savage Landor

A man's vanity tells him what is honor; a man's conscience what is justice.

Character | Conscience | Honor | Justice | Man |

John F. Kennedy, fully John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

When at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment of each one of us - recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state - our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions - were we truly men of courage... were we truly men of judgment... were we truly men of integrity... were we truly men of dedication?

Character | Courage | Dedication | Failure | Future | History | Integrity | Judgment | Men | Office | Service | Success | Will |

Kaufmann Kohler

The first question at the Last Judgment will be: Did you deal honestly with your fellow man?

Character | Judgment | Man | Question | Will |