“King subpoened the nation's conscience. He was killed for it.”

— Bill Moyers

"Help", speech to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (3 March 2007), in Moyers on Democracy (2008), p. 111
Context: [Martin Luther] King subpoened the nation's conscience. He was killed for it.

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Bill Moyers34

American journalist 1934

Robert Bolt A Man for All Seasons

Act II
A Man for All Seasons (1960)

“The conscience is a dilemma for the believer in evolution. He doesn't know why it exists. Neither do the experts. Why would evolution create something that tells us that it's wrong to lie, to steal, to kill, and to commit adultery? Was primitive man committing these sins before he evolved a conscience? If he wasn't, why didn't his conscience evolve? If he was, why did the conscience evolve?”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)

“The Play's the Thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“A king does not kill messengers.”

Alexander the Great (-356–-323 BC) King of Macedon

As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, 1.37.9-13
Context: Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.