June 19

Conscience is the consciousness of your spiritual source. And it is only when conscience is seen this way can it be a true guide in people’s lives.

1

During the period of conscious life a person can often notice in himself two different beings: one is blind and sensuous, the other is sighted and spiritual. The blind animal being eats, drinks, rests, sleeps, procreates and moves around like a wound-up machine; the sighted spiritual being is bound to the animal, it does nothing by itself, it only evaluates the activities of the animal being, approving of it when it agrees with it and disapproving of it when it does not.

The sighted spiritual being, whose manifestation we colloquially call conscience, can be compared to the arrow of a compass, in which one point would always point towards the good, while the other, the opposite one, towards evil, and we will not see it until we deviate from its given direction, i.e. from good to evil. But if one were to commit a deed contrary to the direction of conscience, the consciousness of the spiritual being will manifest itself, pointing out the deviation of the animal activity from the direction indicated by conscience.

God has given you the tradition, or the consciousness, of the whole of humankind, and your own personal consciousness, i.e. you conscience, as those two wings with whose help you can ascend and get closer to him and learn the truth. Why then do you want to clip one of these wings? Why withdraw from society or be absorbed in it? Why mute the voice of your conscience or the voice of humankind? They are both sacred. God speaks both to you and to others. Every time they match, when the voice of your consciousness or conscience is confirmed by the consciousness of humankind, you find yourself in the presence of God, and you can be sure that you have found the truth, or have at least read a part of God’s law, because one voice acts as a way to check the other.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

3

People speak of the tradition of moral teaching, or religion, and of conscience as of two different things that guide a human being. In reality there is only one guide—conscience—because only conscience accepts or rejects the traditions of moral teaching or religion.

4

Conscience! You are a divine, immortal and heavenly voice, you are the only true guide for a being that is ignorant and limited, but rational and free, you are an infallible judge of goodness, you are the only thing that makes a human being akin to God! From you comes the superiority of his nature and the morality of his deeds. Without you there is nothing in me to elevate me above an animal, except for the sad advantage of getting entangled in delusions as a result of a disorderly intellect and unguided reason.

— Rousseau

5

You are young and are experiencing a time of interests and passions. It is especially at this time that you must listen to the voice of your conscience and respect it above all else. Do not stray away from it, neither for the sake of lust, nor passion, nor to obey human influences or customs, even if they are called laws. Always ask yourself: does this agree with my conscience? Be courageous and selfless for the sake of conscience. Do not be afraid to disagree with people’s opinions.

— Parker

6

I conceive a man as always spoken to from behind, and unable to turn his head and see the speaker. That voice speaks in all languages, governs all men, and none ever caught a glimpse of its form. If the man will exactly obey it, it will adopt him, so that he shall not any longer separate it from himself in his thought, he shall seem to be it, he shall be it. If he listen with insatiable ears, richer and greater wisdom is taught him, the sound swells to a ravishing music, revealing to him a heavenly life. But if his eye is set on the things to be done, and not on the truth for the sake of which the things are to be done, then the voice grows faint, and at last is but a humming in his ears.

— Emerson

7

It is up to us whether we mute our conscience or let it illuminate us by paying attention to it: if it commands us to do something and we do not do it, if it continues to warn us and we do not pay attention to it, then, little by little, its voice begins to grow ever weaker when, finally, it falls completely silent. That is why we must always listen to it. By ignoring insignificant transgressions, we can easily fall into great sins. More often than not, insignificant transgressions instill in us dangerous habits. Let us try to stop evil while it has not taken root in us. Good and evil grow in us to the extent that we allow them into our hearts.

— From “Devout Thoughts”

Beware of everything that your conscience disapproves of.