Samuel Johnson Quotes

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right.

Tis a human trait to hate one you have wronged

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

Every man's conscience is vile and depraved / You cannot depend on it to be your guide when it’s you who must keep it satisfied.

he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't guilty.

The most reckless sinner against his own conscience has always in the background the consolation that he will go on in this course only this time, or only so long, but that at such a time he will amend. We may be assured that we do not stand clear with our own consciences so long as we determine or project, or even hold it possible, at some future time to alter our course of action.

Guilt soon learns to lie.

All wrong doing is done in the sincere belief that it is the best thing to do.

When our conscience bothers us, whether we admit it or not, we often try to justify it by correcting others, or by finding fault with them. The readiness to believe evil about others is in large part ammunition for a thousand scandals in our own hearts.

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

I'm supposed to be a christian, but most days I don't feel like I can even presume to say that about myself any longer. I have a lot of mad left over. When I can't sleep, I think about the other people who didn't care how much pain and trouble they caused me. And I think about how good I'd feel if they died.

Early in his life Mr. [Ezra] Pound met with strong, continued, and unintelligent opposition. If people keep opposing you when you are right, you think them fools; and after a time, right or wrong, you think them fools simply because they oppose you. Similarly, you write true things or good things, and end by thinking things true or good simply because you write them

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.

Memory says, 'I did that.' Pride replies, 'I could not have done that.' Eventually, memory yields.

Every one of us has a bad conscience, which he tries to escape by going to sleep as quickly as possible.

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?

We never do evil so thoroughly and heartily as when led to it by an honest but perverted, because mistaken, conscience.

Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment.

Twas something else. I had come to hate her, you see. I had come to wish her dead, and that was what held me back.

You feel the intense desire to do good, to do right thing. At this stage, you also feel helpless.

I am much more afraid of my good deeds that please me than of my bad deeds that repel me.

Desires going before conversion are not such as can calm a storming conscience.