Charles Bukowski Quotes

Humanity is lost because people have abandoned using their conscience as their compass.

Liberty without virtue would be no blessing to us.

Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.

I'm not sure anything makes you an outright good person or bad person - that we're all capable of doing good or bad things. And if you want to know how much good you can do, and how much hurt you can do, just ask somebody you love.

Conscience is the frame of character, and love is the covering for it.

Without integrity and conscience we lose our freedom.

The most valuable asset we have, actually, is our ability to understand, to do the right thing, to be kind, to be decent.

Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality. Morality is not bribery or threats. Religion is bribery and threats. Humans have morality. We don't need religion.

Try to find the path of least resistance and use it without harming others. Live with integrity and morality, not only with people but with all beings.

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.

Many a man renounces morals, but with great difficulty the conception, 'morality.' Morality is the 'idea' of morals, their intellectual power, their power over the conscience; on the other hand, morals are too material to rule the mind, and do not fetter an 'intellectual' man, a so-called independent, a 'freethinker.'

I follow my conscience - and this is upsetting to some people, but I maintain the conscience is going to be the only thing between us and communication in the future.

One of my weaknesses is that I actually have a conscience.

We have to always hope in humanity that people will make the right choices.

You don't need a religious background to strive for something good, for genuine compassion and love for others.

I try not to do anything that's immoral.

Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

… knowledge without conscience is but the ruin of the soul

In order for non-violence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.

At the end of the day, you have to do what you think is right and be human.

Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function; living is the functionary.

The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice,' but integrity.

I believe that rules do not make us moral; loving each other makes us moral.

There is no wrong time to do the right thing.

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules