I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things.
Interpretation
A strong sense of morality can prevent one from acting unethically.
This quote by Octavia Butler reflects the concept of an unwavering moral compass that holds individuals accountable for their actions. It suggests that a heightened awareness of right and wrong can act as a self-imposed check, ensuring that one cannot easily escape the consequences of their behavior or justify wrongdoing.
In practice
Discussing the importance of personal ethics in a seminar.
What I'm working on now - I'm back to fantasy, although considering that it's me, I'm turning it into a kind of science fantasy. It's a vampire story - but my vampires are biological vampires. They didn't become vampires because someone bit them; they were born that way.
Slavery was a long slow process of dulling.
Here I was into astronomy, and here into anthropology, and there I go into geology. It was much more fun to be able to research and write about whatever I wanted to.
There is no end To what a living world Will demand of you.
You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.
Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free." I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.
Look upon him who shows you your faults as a revealer of treasure: seek his company who checks and chides you, the sage who is wise in reproof: it fares well and not ill with him who seeks such company.
Money doesn't change men. It merely unmasks them.
Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.
Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.
Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets, but gold that's put to use more gold begets.
I wonder what becomes of lost opportunities? Perhaps our guardian angel gathers them up as we drop them, and will give them back to us in the beautiful sometime when we have grown wiser, and learned how to use them rightly.
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