Noun | 1. | conscience - motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions |
2. | conscience - conformity to one's own sense of right conduct; "a person of unflagging conscience" | |
3. | conscience - a feeling of shame when you do something immoral; "he has no conscience about his cruelty" |
CONSCIENCE. The moral sense, or that capacity of our mental constitution, by
which we irresistibly feel the difference between right and wrong.
2. The constitution of the United States wisely provides that "no
religious test shall ever be required." No man, then, or body of men, have a
right to control a man's belief or opinion in religious matters, or to
forbid the most perfect freedom of inquiry in relation to them, by force or
threats, or by any other motives than arguments or persuasion. Vide Story,
Const. Sec. 1841-1843.