Conscience ... is the impulse to do right because it is right, regardless of personal ends.--Margaret C. Graham ("A Matter of Conscience" Do They Really Respect Us and Other Essays)

Conscience is the spiritual, supernatural principle in man, and it is not of social origin at all. It is rather the perversion and confusion of conscience that is of social origin.--Nicholas Berdyaev (The Destiny of Man) 

Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing.--Margaret Deland (The Promises of Alice)

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.--George Eliot (The Mill on the Floss)

Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?." Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?." But, conscience asks the question, "Is it right?." And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Developing the mind is important, but developing a conscience is the most precious gift parents can give their children.--John Gray (Children Are From Heaven)

A disciplined conscience is a man's best friend. It may not be his most amiable, but it is his most faithful mentor.--Austin Phelps

Each wrong act brings with it its own anesthetic, dulling the conscience and blinding it against further light, and sometimes for years.--Rose Macaulay (Letters to a Friend)

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.--Lillian Hellman

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.--Thomas Paine

I should love to satisfy all, if I possibly can; but in trying to satisfy all, I may be able to satisfy none. I have, therefore, arrived at the conclusion that the best course is to satisfy one's own conscience and leave the world to form its own judgment, favorable or otherwise.--Mohandas K. Gandhi (in Gandhi's View of Life)

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.--Mahatma Gandhi

Most of us follow our conscience as we follow a wheelbarrow. We push it in front of us in the direction we want to go.--Billy Graham

Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.--Albert Einstein (in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist ed. by Schilpp)

Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility.--Elizabeth Cady Stanton

One is happy as a result of one's own efforts--once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness--simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience.--George Sand

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.--Harper Lee

Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.--Josh Billings

When a man won't listen to his conscience, it's usually because he doesn't want advice from a total stranger.--Lindsey Stewart

Whenever conscience speaks with a divided, uncertain, and disputed voice, it is not the voice of God. Descend still deeper into yourself, until you hear nothing but a clear, undivided voice, a voice which does away with doubt and brings with it persuasion, light, and serenity.--Henri F. Amiel

The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Our is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.--General Omar Bradley (in a speech in Boston, Mass, 11/10/48)