John Knox Quotes

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

I can't tell you how important it is for people on the public stage to utilize that stage in a constructive, positive way. When you're in the public eye, you have a decision to make - whether you are going to be an influence or not.

I know that I do have influence over the people who watch me, and it's quite a pressure. I have to stay positive, and while I would never use the words 'role model', I am mindful of the responsibilities that come with a substantial viewership.

When a fantasy turns you on, you're obligated to God and nature to start doing it - right away.

But I felt all the more bound to make this proposal, because it at once turns to a reproach.

Permanent remorse about failing to do your human duty, in my opinion, can be worse than losing your life.

Must not I then entertain the saints because I must keep my conscience.

Some people have much more pull than other people. But when I say that the public has ultimate responsibility, I'm not saying it in a moral sense. I'm just saying it in the sense of what is it that's really going to bring change.

My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a democratic framework.

There's no statute of limitations on doing what's right.

When, in any ethical department, unity is attained between outer demands and inner desires, between nature and conscience, between the needs of society and the individual, the moral formula is void because inner necessity then makes it psychically and physically impossible to break the outer law. Thus, true morality is attained.

And, if there was any responsibility in refusing to obey, he was willing to accept it.

I didn't volunteer; they asked me. I felt a duty to testify.

Human nature is the same now as when Adam hid from the presence of God; the consciousness of wrong makes us unwilling to meet those whom we have offended.

I followed the law. Before God, before the law, before the people of the state of Florida who elected me, I know that I followed the law.

I mean, if a person acts irresponsibly in his own life, he will pay the consequences. And it's not so much divine retribution as it's built into the law of nature.

By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.

If you violate Nature's laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.

I think that if there are positions that you can't argue... then the responsibility is probably to resign. If one's own conscience is opposed to the requirements and responsibilities of the job, then it's time to leave the job.

I have done what I felt to be my duty.

The only immorality is not to do what one has to do when one has to do it.

Public life is a situation of power and energy; he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch as he that goes over to the enemy.

To God what is God's, to Caesar what is Caesar's. To humans—what?

Even if the exercise of my responsibility becomes my burden, I’ll bear it. But I can tell you I am going to sleep well tonight knowing I’ve made the right decision.

Pubic business must be done. It will be done one way or another. If wise men refuse it, others will not. If honest men refuse it, others will not.