#conscience

Bonhoeffer examined and dismissed a number of approaches to dealing with evil. "Reasonable people," he said, think that "with a little reason, they can pull back together a structure that has come apart at the joints." Then there are the ethical "fanatics" who "believe that they can face the power of evil with the purity of their will and their principles." Men of"conscience" become overwhelmed because the "countless respectable and seductive disguises and masks in which evil approaches them make their conscience anxious and unsure until they finally content themselves with an assuaged conscience instead of a good conscience." They must "deceive their own conscience in order not to despair." Finally there are some who retreat to a "private virtuousness. Such people neither steal, nor murder,nor commit adultery, but do good according to their abilities. but... they must close their eyes and ears to the injustice around them. Only at the cost of self-deception can they keep their private blamelessness clean from the stains of responsible action in the world. In all that they do, what they fail to do will not let them rest. ↗

— Eric Metaxas

#dealing-with-evil #ethics #injustice #moral-responsibility #self-justification

Yet, analytical truth is not as mysterious, or as secret, so as to not allow us to see that people with a talent for directing consciences see truth rise spontaneously. ↗

— Jacques Lacan

#analytical #consciences #directing #mysterious #people

A conscience without God is like a court without a judge. ↗

— Alphonse de Lamartine

#court #god #judge #like #without

Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. ↗

— Harper Lee

#before #conscience #folks #got #i

A good conscience is a continual feast. ↗

— Robert Burton

#continual #feast #good

A clear conscience is a sure card. ↗

— John Lyly

#clear #clear conscience #conscience #sure

Conscience- protects the privileges of intimacy, makes ,friends keep their promises, prevents the angered spouse from striking back. ↗

— Martha Stout

#anger

The photographs of Iraqi prisoners being subjected to degrading and humiliating treatment by their captors, and the reports of acts of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and other acts of maltreatment shock the conscience. ↗

— Ed Markey

#acts #being #captors #conscience #degrading

I think - I think you have a conscience growing up in a loving family with a nurturing community. And I think what happens is, and that's part of the problem of being in the closet which is a very sick place. I mean it's self loathing. It's self denial. And you keep that separate. ↗

— James McGreevey

#closet #community #conscience #denial #family

Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the United States is, should or could be the global gendarme. ↗

— Robert McNamara

#could #global #itself #neither #nor