moral compasses

Noun

moral compass (plural moral compasses)

1. An inner sense that distinguishes right from wrong, functioning as a guide for morally appropriate behavior.
   • To every sane man in all climes and ages the great Creator has given a moral compass to enable him to avoid the wrong and follow the right. This moral compass we call conscience.1865 August, “Scripture Cabinet: The Office of Temptation”, in I[saac] W[illiam] Wiley, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XXV...

   Synonyms:

   conscience, moral sense

2. A belief system, person, etc., serving as a guide for morally appropriate behavior.
   • Their catastrophe stemmed from disregarding Christian doctrine: radix malorum est cupiditas (greed is the root of all evil). Without a moral compass, [Robert] Stone's characters cannot even plead ignorance.1974 November 11, Paul Gray, “Books: Notable: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone 342 Pages. Houghton Mifflin. $8.95. [review]”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
3. (archaic) The full range of actions, vices, or virtues, which may affect others and which are available as choices to a person, group, or people in general.
   • [W]hile blowing opposite arguments from every point of the moral compass, the adventurous Baron quietly saw himself left to navigate his own vessel his own way, through this storm of his own raising.1822, Anna Maria Porter, chapter I, in Roche-Blanche; or, The Hunters of the Pyrenees. […], volume I, London: […] [A[ndrew] & R[obert] Spottiswoode] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]...