Malcolm Bradbury Quotes

Occasionally, chewing over some random letter writer's dilemma, I'll find myself imagining scenarios where the problem could be sidestepped by an innocent fib or series of evasive manoeuvres. Then, I slap myself on the wrist.

Within the confines of the lecture hall, no other virtue exists but plain intellectual integrity.

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

I have no respect for the right-to-life position, though I have every respect for an individual who says, "I could never have that procedure, I could never see a film or read a book about that procedure." It doesn't bother me if people feel that way.

The vehemence of my moral indignation surprised me. Was I beginning to have standards and principles, and, oh dear, scruples? What were they, and what would I do with them, and how much were they going to get in my way?

The choice of life is not between fame and fortune, nor wealth and poverty, but between good and evil.

Everybody is grappling with their own moral compass, and that needle, like any needle, can't just stick. It's always floating a little bit, and depending on where you're standing, it's hard to read.

There is nothing in the whole frame of man which seems to me so unaccountable as that thing called conscience.

I love feelings that are universal, things that tie every single person on this earth together. I think we all battle between what we know is right and what we feel is right every single day, and as much as that can be difficult it's absolutely human.

My conscience won't allow me to do films I thought were bad but were going to make money.

Many people weigh the guilt, they will feel against the pleasure of the forbidden action they want to take.

For a good man fame is always a problem.

I am doing the right thing, he told himself, so why do I feel so bad?

What I cannot live with may not bother another man's conscience. The result is that conscience will stand against conscience.

Though justice be thy plea consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation.

Always listen to the voice of your conscience. If your conscience conflicts with your faith, question everything.

I have just been through the process of killing a cistudo for the sake of science; but I cannot excuse myself for this murder, and see that such actions are inconsistent with the poetic perception, however they may serve science, and will affect the quality of my observations. I pray that I may walk more innocently and serenely through nature. No reasoning whatever reconciles me to this act. It affects my day injuriously. I have lost some self-respect. I have a murderer's experience to a degree.

I'm a good person. In most ways. But I'm beginning to think that being a good person in most ways doesn't count for anything very much, if you're a bad person in one way.

Honor is a public enemy, and conscience a domestic, and he that would secure his pleasure, must pay a tribute to one and go halves with t'other.

Guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes; and, to make it yet more shameful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand in awe of those to whom nothing could give influence or weight but their power of betraying.

Thank God he killed the guy. Oh, now, wait a minute. What kind of a prayer was that!

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?

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.

Frustration filled his features. "Rose I've done a lot of bad things, most of which I can never fix or find redemption for. My only choice now, if I want to reclaim my life, is to go forward, stopping evil and doing what's right. And what is NOT right is taking a woman from another man, a man I like and respect. I'll steal cars. I'll break into houses. But there are lines I WILL not cross, no matter what I—

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