Saint-John Perse Quotes

All a poet can do today is warn.

If anyone has a conscience it's generally a guilty one.

Conscience ... seldom comes to a man's aid while he is in the zenith of health and revelling in pomp and luxury upon illgotten spoils. It is generally the last act of his life, and it comes too late to be of much service to others here, or to himself hereafter.

A guilty conscience means at least you have one.

The times are squalid. They always were. It is a poet's duty to hold the line.

There is a guilty conscience behind every brazen word and act and behind every manifestation of self-righteousness.

I don't write to give joy to readers but to give them a conscience.

There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.

Living with a conscience is like driving with the brakes on.

The eye of God ends up inside, so that, in the end, you take care of judgment and punishment yourself.

God's eye does not slumber. He knows every sin that is hidden from mortal eye.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.

The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.

Conscience gets a lot of credit that really belongs to cowardice.

Tis not for us to warn a wilful sinner; We stay him not, but let him run his course, Till by misfortunes rous'd, his conscience wakes, And prompts him to appease th' offended gods.

Men who can hear the Decalogue, and feel To self-reproach.

In hell, sinners shall forever lay all the blame on their own wills. Hell is a rational torment by conscience.

He [man] knows that when he is not what he ought to be; when he does what he ought not to do; or omits what he ought to do, he is chargeable with sin

As long as there is satire, the poet is, as it were, particeps criminis.

Control cannot be called conscience until we are able to take it inside us and make it our own, until--in spite of the fact that the wrongs we have done or imagined will never be punished or known--we nonetheless feel that the clutch in the stomach, that chill upon the soul, that self-inflicted misery called guilt.

Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses.

Well, it was most likely too late; there would not be time for me to flagellate myself for every dishonorable deed in that list, nor any chance to make good the harms I’d done. Minor harms, to be sure, in the scheme of things; but large enough to regret.

Because he KNEW he was doing wrong. He felt the PAIN of his actions'-- 'But he did not amen them,' shows the Sky. 'The rest are worth as much as their pack animals,' I show, 'but worst is the one who knows better and does NOTHING.

Beware! Don't allow yourself to do what you know is wrong, relying on the thought, Later I will repent and ask God's forgiveness.