Quotes About Freedom Of Conscience

#1. Freedom of conscience is a natural right, both antecedent and superior to all human laws and institutions whatever; a right which laws never gave and a right which laws can never take away.

John Goodwin

#2. Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.

Michel Foucault

#3. As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom - not least freedom of conscience.

Jon Meacham

#4. I have lived under totalitarian Communism, so I prize freedom as much as anyone and have long fought for freedom of conscience and speech.

Os Guinness

#5. Freedom of conscience does not mean being uncontrolled - we have to control ourselves and at times submit to others ...

John Geddes

#6. The exploitation of women, mass hunger, disregard for freedom of conscience and for freedom of speech, widespread and racial discrimination all these evils are far too prevalent to be overlooked.

Rene Cassin

#7. The key imperatives of modernity: freedom of conscience, tolerance of difference, equality of the sexes, and an investment in life before death.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

#8. Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

#9. Freedom of conscience is the core of all freedom

Pope Benedict XVI

#10. Nothing is more seductive for a man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

#11. War is wrong. Conscription for war is inconsistent with freedom of conscience, which is not merely the right to believe but to act on the degree of truth that one receives, to follow a vocation which is God-inspired and God-directed.

Bayard Rustin

#12. There's clearly a war against freedom of conscience happening, and the most resistant fighters are the chosen victims, in a deliberate, persistent and consistent dumbing down of the population.

Daniel Marques

#13. The more people come together, the more borders will be opened and people and opinions get together, the more unrenouncable tolerance will be a fundamental part of our social life. Without tolerance there is no religious liberty, no freedom of conscience and no freedom of thought.

Thomas Klestil

#14. It is not true that democracy will always safeguard freedom of conscience better than autocracy. Witness the most famous of all trials. Pilate was, from the standpoint of the Jews, certainly the representative of autocracy. Yet he tried to protect freedom. And he yielded to a democracy.

Joseph A. Schumpeter

#15. In our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.

Mark Twain

#16. There is nothing more alluring to man than freedom of conscience, but neither is there anything more agonizing.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#17. There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience.

Vint Cerf

#18. All of our effort should be focused on protecting the religious liberties and freedom of conscience for those Americans that profoundly disagree with the decision.

Carly Fiorina

#19. It is by the goodness of god that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Mark Twain

#20. The inviolability of the seal of confession is so fundamental to the very nature of the sacrament that any proposal which undermines that inviolability is a challenge to the rights of every Catholic to freedom of religion and conscience.

Sean Brady

#21. Roger Williams died sometime during the early months of 1683. Some of what he said and wrote during his lifetime belongs to the seventeenth century. But much of his historical and philosophical record speaks to us across the centuries.

Alan E. Johnson

#22. Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum.

Samuel Adams

#23. No political party can or ought to exist when one of its corner-stones is opposition to freedom of thought and to the right to worship God "according to the dictate of one's own conscience," or according to the creed of any religious denomination whatever.

Ulysses S. Grant

#24. I cannot approve of monarchs who want to rule over the conscience of the people, and take away their freedom of choice and religion.

William The Silent

#25. While many believers walk around with a guilty conscience and feel disqualified to receive God's promises, we are able to enter a level of freedom that assures us we are qualified at any moment to boldly enter His presence, to shine with His glory, and to do great exploits for His kingdom.

Katherine Ruonala

#26. [About Jews] Among other nations, the vital problems are: a good crop, extension of the boundaries, strong armies, colonies; among us, if we wish to be true to ourselves, the vital questions are: conscience, freedom, culture, ethics.

I.L. Peretz

#27. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Eleanor Roosevelt

#28. Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.

Patrick Henry

#29. All the characters in my films are fighting these problems, needing freedom, trying to find a way to cut themselves loose, but failing to rid themselves of conscience, a sense of sin, the whole bag of tricks.

Michelangelo Antonioni

#30. Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

Thomas Jefferson

#31. The nation demands a movement which has written upon its banner the internal and external national freedom that it will act as if it were the spiritual, social and political conscience of the nation.

Franz Von Papen

#32. Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government. But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution.

Mitt Romney

#33. Academic freedom really means freedom of inquiry. To be able to probe according to one's own interest, knowledge and conscience is the most important freedom the scholar has, and part of that process is to state its results.

Donald Kennedy

#34. One's soul is made up of the unity of conscience and what compels you. That is, at the core, there is already a devotional relationship between these two. We just need to realize that and give them both the freedom to do what they wish.

Darrell Calkins

#35. Genuine bravery for a writer ... It is about calmly speaking the truth when everyone else is silenced, when the truth cannot be expressed. It is about speaking out with a different voice, risking the wrath of the state and offending everyone, for the sake of the truth, and the writer's conscience.

Murong Xuecun

#36. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

John Milton

#37. Where there is no freedom of speech, there is no conscience.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

#38. Freedom is the only real doctor of the sick slaves; and a good conscience, of the ill masters!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

#39. The legal toleration of abortion or of euthanasia can in no way claim to be based on respect for the conscience of others, precisely because society has the right and the duty to protect itself against the abuses which can occur in the name of conscience and under the pretext of freedom.

Pope John Paul II

#40. You made us for yourself, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. In this creative restlessness beats and pulsates what is most deeply human - the search for truth, the insatiable need for the good, hunger for freedom, nostalgia for the beautiful, and the voice of conscience.

Pope John Paul II

#41. My idea of freedom is that we should protect the rights of people to believe what their conscience dictates, but fight equally hard to protect people from having the beliefs of others imposed upon them.

Justin Trudeau

#42. Freedom of religion is one of the greatest gifts of God to man, without distinction of race and color. He is the author and lord of conscience, and no power on earth has a right to stand between God and the conscience.

Philip Schaff

#43. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It destroys communities and makes humanity impossible. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers ... In winning our freedom, we will so appeal to you heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.

Martin Luther King Jr.

#44. The dictator says "You are allowed to think as you want" but never write it down or talk about it. If you cross these borders we cannot guarantee your security

Bangambiki Habyarimana

#45. Freedom is the opportunity for right development, for development in accordance with the progressive ideal of life that we have in conscience.

Charles Horton Cooley

#46. Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind," she said with a hint
of sadness.
"You lost your mind a long time ago," he said seriously. She looked at him with indignation. "That's a compliment for anyone who knows the freedom and clarity of losing their mind," he reaffirmed her.

Daniel J. Rice

#47. It matters not whether these weapons of ours are humane: if they gain us our freedom, they are justified before our conscience and before our God.

Adolf Hitler

#48. Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat.

George W. Bush

#49. Wild liberty develops iron conscience. Want of liberty, by strengthening law and decorum, stupefies conscience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

#50. You'll never let me go, will you? Giving me the space and freedom I want isn't your idea of love, is it? You'd rather cut me deep on earth to spare me pain in hell, whereas I think hell is right here.

Matthew J. Hefti

#51. Our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice.

Barack Obama

#52. When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society.

Pope John Paul II

#53. A tranquil conscience invites freedom from anguish, sorrow, guilt, shame, and self-condemnation. It provides a foundation for happiness. It is a condition of immense worth.

Richard G. Scott

#54. Hatred is corrosive of a person's wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society's tolerance and humanity, and block a nation's progress to freedom and democracy.

Liu Xiaobo

#55. And so it is to the printing press
to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news
that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

John F. Kennedy

#56. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Joseph Smith Jr.

#57. Sitting there I had a vision of the world with nations, systems, economic blocks, hardening and consolidating; a world where it would become increasingly ludicrous even to talk about freedom, or the individual conscience.

Doris Lessing

#58. The racist conscience of America is such that murder does not register as murder really, unless the victim is whiteblacks knew that white blood is the coin of freedom in a land where for four hundred years black blood has been shed unremarked and with impunity.

Eldridge Cleaver