Date: 1760-7

"Conscience looks into the Statutes at Large;--finds no express law broken by what he has done;--perceives no penalty or forfeiture of goods and chattels incurred;--sees no scourge waving over his head, or prison opening his gates upon him:--What is there to affright his conscience?--Conscience h...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

In Catholicism a man's conscience could not possibly continue for long blinded;--"three times in a year, at least, he must go to confession."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Will that restore [the conscience] to sight, quoth my uncle Toby?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"But if he is so wicked and abandoned a wretch as you represent him;--if he robs,--if he stabs,--will not conscience, on every such act, receive a wound itself? Aye,--but the man has carried it to confession;--the wound digests there, and will do well enough, and in a short time be quite healed u...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Thus conscience, this once able monitor, --placed on high as a judge within us, and intended by our Maker as a just and equitable one too,--by an unhappy train of causes and impediments, takes often such imperfect cognizance of what passes,--does its office so negligently,--sometimes so corruptl...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Blessed is the man whose heart hath not condemn'd him; whether he be rich, or whether he be poor, if he have a good heart (a heart thus guided and informed) he shall at all times rejoice in a chearful countenance; his mind shall tell him more than seven watch-men that sit above upon a tower on h...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

When told by another "that such a thing goes against his conscience,--always believe he means exactly the same thing, as when he tells you such a thing goes against his stomach;--a present want of appetite being generally the true cause of both."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"And, in your own case, remember this plain distinction, a mistake in which has ruined thousands,--that your conscience is not a law."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"No, God and reason made the law, and have placed conscience within you to determine;--not like an Asiatic Cadi, according to the ebbs and flows of his own passions,--but like a British judge in this land of liberty and good sense, who makes no new law, but faithfully declares that law which he k...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"To conceive this right,--call for pen and ink--here's paper ready to your hand. --Sit down, Sir, paint her to your own mind"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)