“Ever present, potent, vigilant, in the breast of man, there is that which never became a party in his guilt”

XVI. CONSCIENCE
Orphic Sayings
Context: Ever present, potent, vigilant, in the breast of man, there is that which never became a party in his guilt, never consented to a wrong deed, nor performed one, but holds itself above all sin, impeccable, immaculate, immutable, the deity of the heart, the conscience of the soul, the oracle and interpreter, the judge and executor of the divine law.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Ever present, potent, vigilant, in the breast of man, there is that which never became a party in his guilt" by Amos Bronson Alcott?
Amos Bronson Alcott photo
Amos Bronson Alcott 14
American teacher and writer 1799–1888

Related quotes

Chris Rock photo

“Our next presenter is the first woman to ever breast-feed an Apple – Gwyneth Paltrow.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

At the Academy Awards as host
Miscellaneous

Bernardo Dovizi photo

“He who has love in his breast has ever the spurs at his flanks.”

Bernardo Dovizi (1470–1520) Italian cardinal and playwright

Act II, scene VII — (Samia).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 264.
La Calandria (c. 1507)

Jean-Baptiste Say photo

“What is the motive which operates in every man's breast to counteract the impulse towards the gratification of his wants and appetites?”

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) French economist and businessman

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XIX, p. 207

David Hume photo

“A wise man's kingdom is his own breast: or, if he ever looks farther, it will only be to the judgment of a select few, who are free from prejudices, and capable of examining his work.”

David Hume (1711–1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian

Playfully ironic letter to Adam Smith regarding the positive reception of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"
Context: A wise man's kingdom is his own breast: or, if he ever looks farther, it will only be to the judgment of a select few, who are free from prejudices, and capable of examining his work. Nothing indeed can be a stronger presumption of falsehood than the approbation of the multitude; and Phocion, you know, always suspected himself of some blunder when he was attended with the applauses of the populace.

William Wordsworth photo
Bonar Law photo
Juvenal photo

“No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.”
Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.

II, line 83.
Compare: "There is a method in man’s wickedness, — It grows up by degrees
Beaumont and Fletcher, A King and No King, Act v, scene 4.
Satires, Satire II

Emily Brontë photo

“O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life — that in me has rest,
As I — undying Life — have power in Thee!”

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) English novelist and poet

No Coward Soul Is Mine (1846)
Context: p>No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life — that in me has rest,
As I — undying Life — have power in Thee!Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main...</p

“If ever he had harboured a conscience in his tough narrow breast he had by now dug out and flung away the awkward thing—flung it so far away that were he ever to need it again he could never find it.”

Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) English writer, artist, poet and illustrator

Source: Gormenghast (1950), Chapter 2 (pp. 404-405)

Eduard Bernstein photo

“The parties which assumed the names of liberals were, or became in due course, simple guardians of capitalism.”

Eduard Bernstein (1850–1932) German politician

Source: "Evolutionary Socialism" (1899) https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bernstein/works/1899/evsoc/index.htm, Chapter III, The Tasks and Possibilities of Social Democracy

Related topics