Conscience
Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong. Moral judgment may derive from values or norms (principles and rules). In psychological terms conscience is often described as leading to feelings of remorse when a human commits actions that go against his/her moral values and to feelings of rectitude or integrity when actions conform to such norms. The extent to which conscience informs moral judgment before an action and whether such moral judgments are or should be based in reason has occasioned debate through much of the history of Western philosophy.
Read more about Conscience.
Famous quotes containing the word conscience:
“It don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no sense, and just goes for him anyway. If I had a yaller dog that didn’t know no more than a person’s conscience does, I would pison him.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“A man’s conscience and his judgement is the same thing; and as the judgement, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
“Of smale houndes hadde she that she fedde
With rosted flessh, or milk and wastel-breed.
But soore wepte she if oon of hem were deed,
Or if men smoot it with a yerde smerte—
And al was conscience and tendre herte.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)