Henry David Thoreau Quotes

You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair.

But there are times in this harum-scarum world when figuring out the right thing to do is quite simple, but doing the right thing is simply impossible.

Whenever there is a conflict between universal principles and self-interest, self-interest is likely to prevail.

How far can a person go... and still live with himself.

The most painful moral struggles are not those between good and evil, but between the good and the lesser good.

The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.

I never want to possibly take another life in my hands.

Senator H. Alexander Smith of New Jersey spent the day wrestling with his conscience. He won.

I just felt sick. I was actually executing people. I knew it was wrong, and I should have voted against it. But I didn’t.

What's stronger-the need to uphold the law, or the motive to turn one's back on it?

I voted for Stevenson as opposed to Eisenhower because I thought he would make a good president, but against my conscience because I thought that he was too good for the job.

Identify the moral dilemma driving the novel. the successful novel will haunt a reader because it deals with some ethical or moral dilemma that makes the reader wonder what he or she would do in the protagonist's place.

That's the problem with having a moral code. We want to destroy the jerkish part of the jerks, but we want to save the human being underneath.

Terrible is the temptation to be good.

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

Those who experiment on animals should never be able to quiet their own conscience by telling themselves that these cruelties have a worthy aim.

A man may quarrel with himself alone; that is, by controverting his better instincts and knowledge when brought face to face with temptation.

One of my themes is that there is good and evil in everyone. I was not out to make these guys heroes. I really don't believe in heroes. The best of people have a dark side and it's a constant struggle for the better side to survive and to thrive.

I marveled at them both; how difficult it must be to be a person. To constantly subvert your desires. To worry about doing the right thing, rather than doing what is most expedient. At that moment, honestly, I had grave doubts as to my ability to interact on such a level. I wondered if I could ever become the human I hoped to be.

In trying to avoid one sin I've committed another.

My conscience aches but it's going to lose the fight.

Are we not also married to conscience which we would love to get rid of often enough since it is more bothersome than a man or a woman ever could become?

It's easier to be hedonistic and just chase after whatever appeals to your senses. That's the life of an animal, you just do. It's more difficult to stand by your convictions and have people berate you on both sides and feel like there's no home for you.

Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience.

We only have one story. All novels, all poetry are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil.