“It is neither right nor safe to go against my conscience.”

— Martin Luther

Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

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Martin Luther 214

seminal figure in Protestant Reformation 1483–1546

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“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right….”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" (31 March 1968)
1960s
Variant: There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Context: On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and 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 he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.
Context: On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and 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 he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "We ain't goin' study war no more." This is the challenge facing modern man.

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Statement in defense of his writings at the Diet of Worms (19 April 1521), as translated in The Nature of Protestantism (1963) by Karl Heim, p. 78 Luther is often said to have declared, "Here I stand, I can do no other," before concluding with "God help me. Amen." However, there is no indication in the transcripts of the Diet or in eyewitness accounts that he ever said this. See "Disputed" section below.

“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 it is right.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

“One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

" Acquainted with the Night http://www.ketzle.com/frost/acquainted.htm" (1928)
General sources
Context: One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

“We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, self-preservation in the other.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

On slavery, in a letter to John Holmes (22 April 1820)
1820s

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

Robert S. McNamara (1916–2009) American businessman and Secretary of Defense

Source: Charles E. Miller (2010) Conscience, Denied, p. 21

“As neither reason requires nor religion permits the contrary, every man living in or out of a state of civil society has a right peaceably and quietly to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

The Rights of the Colonists (1772)

“No conscience which is a palimpsest of the consciences of others is a safe guide.”

Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)

Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 29

“We shall neither die out, nor be driven out; but shall go with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in their favor throughout their generations.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Essay in North Star (November 1858); as quoted in Faces at the Bottom of the Well : The Permanence of Racism (1992) by Derrick Bell, p. 40
1850s
Context: We deem it a settled point that the destiny of the colored man is bound up with that of the white people of this country. … We are here, and here we are likely to be. To imagine that we shall ever be eradicated is absurd and ridiculous. We can be remodified, changed, assimilated, but never extinguished. We repeat, therefore, that we are here; and that this is our country; and the question for the philosophers and statesmen of the land ought to be, What principles should dictate the policy of the action toward us? We shall neither die out, nor be driven out; but shall go with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in their favor throughout their generations.

“Neither go to a wedding nor a christening unbid.”

James Howell (1594–1666) Anglo-Welsh historian and writer

Lexicon Tetraglotton (1660)

“It is neither right nor safe to go against my conscience.”

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