Jim Butcher Quotes

Guilt is present in the very hesitation, even though the deed be not committed.

The hardest thing usually to leave behind, as was the case now, can loosely be called the conscience.

Conscience doth make cowards of us all.

Conscience is our unerring judge until we finally stifle it.

We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are.

I'll not meddle with it; it is a dangerous thing; it makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbor's wife, but it detects him. 'Tis a blushing, shame -faced spirit, that mutinies in a man's bosom ; it fills one full of obstacles; it made me once restore a purse of gold that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it; it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man that means to live well endeavors to trust to himself and live without it.

Conscience and covetousness are never to be reconciled; like fire and water they always destroy each other, according to the predominancy of the element.

We do the best we can," she said softly, looking inward. "And punish ourselves for it. I've tried to make my choices with the idea that I've made those choices for the greatest good. Sometimes someone suffers in the process, but I made the decision for the right reason. That should count for something, shouldn't it?

If we cannot be powerful and happy and prey on others, we invent conscience and prey on ourselves.

Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.

On that road of the informer, it is always night. I cannot ever inform against anyone without feeling something die within me. I inform without pleasure, because it is necessary.

Fear is the mother of morality.

You must always do what you feel is right.

When we played softball, I'd steal second base, feel guilty and go back.

You know, I'm cursed with morals. I was raised a certain way. I wish I wasn't. I wish I was raised by wolves.

Let none of us delude himself by supposing that honesty is always the best policy. It is not.

Morality is a test of our conformity rather than our integrity.

The most ethical way to deal with an unethical situation would be to simply say: 'We did something wrong.' But nobody in a family like mine would ever respond like this.

All the characters in my films are fighting these problems, needing freedom, trying to find a way to cut themselves loose, but failing to rid themselves of conscience, a sense of sin, the whole bag of tricks.

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

Remember, as long as you live, that nothing but strict truth can carry you through the world, with either your conscience or your honor unwounded.

There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience.

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

I never hurt anybody in this business, ever.