Conscience, into what abyss of fears
And horrors hast thou driven me, out of which find no way, from deep to deeper plunged.
Let his tormentor conscience find him out.
Whom conscience, ne'er asleep,
Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep.
Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra
Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo.
According to the state of a man's conscience, so do hope and fear on account of his deeds
arise in his mind.
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.
True, conscious Honour is to feel no sin,
He'sarm'd without that's innocent within;
Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of Brass.
Some scruple rose, but thus he eas'd his thought,
"I'll now give sixpence where I gave a groat;
Where once I went to church, I'll now go twice—
And am so clear too of all other vice."
Let Joy or Ease, let Affluence or Content,
And the gay Conscience of a life well spent,
Calm ev'ry thought, inspirit ev'ry grace,
Glow in thy heart, and smile upon thy face.
What Conscience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do;
This teach me more than Hell to shun,
That more than Heav'n pursue.
Sic vive cum hominibus, tanquem deus videat; sic loquere cum deo, tanquam homines audiant.
Live with men as if God saw you; converse with God as if men heard you.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.
And enterprises of great pith and moment)
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
They are our outward consciences.
Now, if you can blush and cry, "guilty," cardinal,
You'll show a little honesty.
I know myself now; and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities;
A still and quiet conscience.
Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstacy.
Macbeth. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 19.
Well, my conscience says, "Launcelot, budge not." "Budge," says the fiend: "budge not," says my conscience. "Conscience," say I, "you counsel well." "Fiend." say I, "you counsel well."
Merchant of Venice. Act II. Sc. 2.
I hate the murderer, love him murdered.
The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour,
But neither my good word nor princely favour:
With Cain go wander through shades of night,
And never show thy head by day nor light.
Richard II. Act V. Sc. 6. L. 40.
The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!
Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
Richard III. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 222.
'Tis a blushing shamefast spirit that mutinies
in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles.
Richard III. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 141.
Soft, I did but dream.
O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!
Richard III. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 179.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Richard III. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 193.
Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.
Richard III. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 309.
I know thou art religious,
And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies,
Which I have seen thee careful to observe.
Titus Andronicus. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 75.
Trust that man in nothing who has not a
Conscience in everything.
Sterne—Tristram Shandy.
| place = Bk. II. Ch.
XVII.
La conscience des mourants calomnie leur vie.
The conscience of the dying belies their life.
Vauvenargues—Reflexions. CXXXVI.
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little
spark of celestial fire, called Conscience,
George Washington—Moral Maxims. Virtue and Vice.
Men who can hear the Decalogue and feel
No self-reproach.
Wordsworth—The Old Cumberland Begqar.
L. 136.
