Date: 1760-7

Conscience may be "engaged at home, talking loud against petty larceny, and executing vengeance upon some such puny crimes as his fortune and rank in life secured him against all temptation of committing."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Shall not conscience rise up and sting him on such occasions?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

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)