Never allow your mind to dwell on your own misconduct: that is ruin. The conscience has morbid sensibilities; it must be employed but not indulged, like the imagination or the stomach.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 7.1 “Discipline of Conscience”
(Source)
A collection of aphorisms and musings, first published in the Edinburgh Edition of his Works, vol. 28 (1898).
Quotations about:
self-reproach
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Solitude is the climax of the negative virtues. When we go to bed after a solitary day we can tell ourselves that we have not been unkind nor dishonest nor untruthful; and the negative virtues are agreeable to that dangerous faculty we call the conscience. That they should ever be admitted for a part of virtue is what I cannot explain. I do not care two straws for all the nots.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 4.6 “Solitude and Society”
(Source)
A collection of aphorisms and musings, first published in the Edinburgh Edition of his Works, vol. 28 (1898).
There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
The Summing Up, ch. 4 (1938)
(Source)
O clear and noble conscience, how sharply a little fault stings you!
[O dignitosa coscïenza, e netta,
come t’è picciol fallo amaro morso!]Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 2 “Purgatorio,” Canto 3, l. 8ff (3.8-9) (1314) [tr. Kline (2002)]
(Source)
Observing his guide, Virgil, upset over one of his own lapses.
(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:O matchless dignity of stainless thought!
Thus bitter seems to you the taste of Sin!
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 2]O clear conscience and upright
How doth a little sting wound thee sore!
[tr. Cary (1814)]Oh, dignity of conscience, when complete,
How small will bitter make that once was sweet!
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]O noble conscience, and without a stain,
How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee!
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]O conscience, dignified and pure, how bitter a sting is a small fault to thee!
[tr. Butler (1885)]O conscience honourably pure, to thee
How is a little fault most bitterly shrived!
[tr. Minchin (1885)]O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is little fault!
[tr. Norton (1892)]O noble conscience and clear, how sharp a sting gives a little fault to thee!
[tr. Wicksteed (1899)]O pure and noble conscience, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]O honourable conscience, clear and chaste,
How small a fault stings thee to bitter smart!
[tr. Binyon (1943)]O noble conscience, clear and undefaced,
How keen thy self-reproach for one small slip!
[tr. Sayers (1955)]O noble conscience without stain! how sharp
the sting of a small fault is to your sense!
[tr. Ciardi (1961)]O pure and noble conscience, how bitter
a sting is a little fault to you!
[tr. Singleton (1973)]O dignity of conscience, noble, chaste,
how one slight fault can sting you into shame!
[tr. Musa (1981)]O conscience so precious and so clear,
How small a fault is a sharp tooth to you!
[tr. Sisson (1981)]O pure and noble conscience, you in whom
each petty fault becomes a harsh rebuke!
[tr. Mandelbaum (1982)]O worthy clear conscience, how bitter a bite to you is even a little fault!
[tr. Durling (2003)]Such dignity of conscience, clear and clean,
bitten so keenly by so slight a fault!
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2007)]O pure and noble conscience,
how bitter is the sting of your least fault!
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]But O, how purest consciences are stung
By tiny faults, bitter on noble tongues!
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 8 (1891)
(Source)
In my head there is a permanent opposition-party; and whenever I take any step or come to any decision — though I may have given the matter mature consideration — it afterward attacks what I have done, without, however, being each time necessarily in the right. This is, I suppose, only a form of rectification on the part of the spirit of scrutiny; but it often reproaches me when I do not deserve it.
[In meinem Kopfe giebt es eine stehende Oppositionspartei, die gegen Alles, was ich, wenn auch mit reiflicher Überlegung, gethan, oder beschlossen habe, nachträglich polemisirt, ohne jedoch darum jedesmal Recht zu haben. Sie ist wohl nur eine Form des berichtigenden Prüfungsgeistes, macht mir aber oft unverdiente Vorwürfe.]
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 26 “Psychological Observations [Psychologische Bemerkungen],” § 345 (1851) [tr. Saunders (1890)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:There is in my mind a standing opposition party which subsequently attacks everything I have done or decided, even after mature consideration, yet without its always being right on that account. It is, I suppose, only a form of the corrective spirit of investigation; but it often casts an unmerited slur on me.
[tr. Payne (1974)]
A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
(Source)
This essay was inspired by his reading of Walter Savage Landor in 1833, with passages pulled from his lecture "Individualism," last in his course on "The Philosophy of History" (1836–1837), with other passages from the lectures "School," "Genius," and "Duty" in his course on "Human Life" (1838–1839).
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 1, ch. 2, § 8 (1951)
(Source)
Few men are sufficiently discerning to appreciate all the evil they do.
[Il n’y a guère d’homme assez habile pour connoître tout le mal qu’il fait.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶269 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959), ¶269]
(Source)
First appeared in the 2nd (1666) edition. In manuscript, it reads "... assez pénétrant pour apercevoir tout le mal qu’il fait."
(Source (French)). Other translations:There are but few Men Wise enough to know all the Mischief Wisdom does.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶270]There are but few Men wise enough to know all the Mischief they do.
[tr. Stanhope (1706), Powell ed., ¶269]Few men are able to know all the ill they do.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶5]Few men are able to know all the ill they do.
[ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶252]Few of us have abilities to know all the ill we occasion.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶3]Scarcely any man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶280]No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶269]No one is sufficiently keen to realize to the full the harm he does.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶277]Scarcely any man is clever enough to realize all the harm he does.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶269]There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil that he does.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶269]Almost no one is perceptive enough to realize all the harm he does.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶269]There is scarcely a man alive clever enough to know all the evil he does.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶269]
A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-07-20), The Spectator, No. 122
(Source)
Writing of his (fictional) friend, Sir Roger de Coverley.
“I have been Foolish and Deluded,” said Pooh, “and I am a Bear of No Brain at All.”
“You’re the Best Bear in All the World,” said Christopher Robin soothingly.A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 3 “Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting” (1926)
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