Ellen Hopkins Quotes

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

There were days when you peered into yourself, into the secret places of your heart, and what you saw there made you faint with horror. And then, next day, you didn't know what to make of it,you couldn't interpret the horror you had glimpsed the day before. Yes, you know what evil costs.

The most miserable pettifogging in the world is that of a man in the court of his own consciences.

God forgive me if I do wrong in following with ardor the strongest instincts of my nature.

The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself.

Some of my instincts are reprehensible.

To me, any character that is conflicted inside as well as outside of themselves is always a better role to play.

Just because I don't do bad things doesn't mean I don't have bad thoughts.

Being an actor sometimes requires that you ask yourself questions you'd rather not know the answers to.

I know who Jack Whittaker is. And some days I don't like who I am.

The hardest thing usually to leave behind, as was the case now, can loosely be called the conscience.

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

He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and whose own sister and closely linked companion was that Cowardice which invariably drew him back, with her tremulous gripe, just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge of a disclosure.

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.

The battle of good and evil reduced to a fat woman standing in front of a chocolate shop, saying, Will I? Won’t I? in pitiful indecision.

To fight evil is to fight ourselves.

For me the moral dilemma this past year has been how to make peace with the unacceptable.

The bite of conscience, like the bite of a dog into a stone, is a stupidity.

I've gone through a lot of different phases on what I do and why I do it - morally and ethically. I've tortured myself about it, especially in dealing with success and money.

Heaven help me for the way I am, save me from these evil deeds before I get them done.

Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles.

A thorn in the flesh is nothing compared to a thorn in the conscience.

It's a very, very fascinating story for me, cause it's about a man who's been doing bad; bad things. And he's a father of four children in parochial school, he's a lieutenant of detectives, but he's in conflict with himself and with trying to do what's right.

Somewhere deep down there's a decent man in me, he just can't be found.