Stanislaus Leszczynski Quotes

Everybody is probably guilty of something. I'm sure that if anyone looked into my heart long enough, they could say, you know, 'Bill had some unkind thoughts back in second grade.'

Long experience has taught me that people who do not like geraniums have something morally unsound about them. Sooner or later you will find them out; you will discover that they drink, or steal books, or speak sharply to cats. Never trust a man or a woman who is not passionately devoted to geraniums.

I'd rather believe in my own choice and see it all go wrong than do something I'm not fully convinced of and later feel guilty about it.

While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.

The day people around me stop questioning my character is the day my character begins to grow vulnerable.

You cannot do wrong and feel right. It is impossible!

This is his first punishment, that by the verdict of his own heart no guilty man is acquitted.

My conscience is clear.

Conscience is the mirror of our souls, which represents the errors of our lives in their full shape.

If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.

Conscience: something that feels terrible when everything else feels well.

Thinking about the sins of others give us a feeling of moral superiority. But thinking about our own sins is a humbling experience, which is generally much less fun.

Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?

What condemnation could possibly be more harsh than one’s own, when self-pretense is no longer possible?

I have done so many things in my life," she said to the mirror. "Evil things, perhaps. But never unattentively, never wastefully...was I wrong?

Was it someone else? Was it not you yourself?

Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses.

The repentant man rightfully loses trust in himself. He recognizes his self-dependence as the source of his problems, not the solution.

Doubtless the world is wicked enough; but it will not be improved by the extension of a spirit which self-righteously sees more to reform outside of itself than in itself.

What is this self-inside us, this silent observer, severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us, and urge us onto futile activity, and in the end, judge us still more severely for the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?

The so-called godly man may be more likely to do serious wrong than a man who deeply questions himself. The 'godly man' often zealously follows religious precepts that, in the end, justify an unjust injury to others, while the questioning man, addressing his own conscience, may have the better chance to consider all the circumstances and come to the just decision.

Conscience is the moralized form of self-absorption.

We are not accusing you of being illegal, we are accusing you of being immoral.

The good displeases us when we are not up to it.

All men of goodwill have this in common - that our works put us to shame.