Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Conscience gets a lot of credit that really belongs to cowardice.

Where reverence is, there is fear; for he who has a feeling of reverence and shame about the commission of any action, fears and is afraid of an ill reputation.

The man who acts never has any conscience; no one has any conscience but the man who thinks

Fear is the mother of morality.

If I do not respond to some situation, my conscience kills me. I believe in permissible violence, not necessarily non-violence.

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

Conscience without judgment is superstition.

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

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.

Guilt is what separates humans from animals.

Disobedience to conscience makes conscience blind.

If I could, Sister James, I would certainly choose to live in innocence. But innocence can only be wisdom in a world without evil. Situations arise and we are confronted with wrongdoing and the need to act.

In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

Whoever despiseth shame, despiseth sin.

I try to do the right thing.

Well, every little boy thinks he invented sin. Virtue we think we learn, because we are told about it. But sin is our own designing.

Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be. . . .

Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.

Someone once asked, 'What is the difference between me and Saddam Hussein?' The answer is, 'I have a conscience and he doesn't.'

Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

An animal takes freely anything that it wishes: it commits no sin and is not held responsible for its action because it knows no better. But as soon as the idea of 'mine' and 'thine' has been imprinted upon our consciousness, then also the responsibility comes.

As for morality, well that's all tied up with the question of consciousness.

Conscience: self-esteem with a halo.

Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.