“A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.”
“On this third planet from the sun
among the signs of bestiality
a clear conscience is Number One.”
"In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
“A clear conscience doesn’t mean anything if you haven’t any conscience.”
Featherisms (2008)
Source: What is Man? (1938), p. 178
Context: Man must be free of it all, of his bad conscience and of the bad salvation from this conscience in order to become in truth the way. Now, he no longer promises others the fulfillment of his duties, but promises himself the fulfillment of man.
“A bad conscience is easier to cope with than a bad reputation.”
Source: The Gay Science
“A clere conscience is a sure carde.”
Euphues, p. 207, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "This is a sure card", Thersytes, circa 1550.
