A conscience is one of the most
difficult opinions to deal with because it is your own. It is the voice that starts quiet and then
grows louder and louder. I believe that
we all try to ignore our conscience from time to time, however, only those that
are truly evil are consistently successful at it. The rest of us have momentary successes at ignoring
our conscience which lead to momentary failures in our lifelong goal to be seen
as a good and wholesome person.
Mark Twain had many thoughts on the
mysterious voice in his head. Twain said
“The uneasy conscience is a hair in the mouth.”
This quote (although the least philosophical of his quotes regarding the
conscience) is possibly the most accurate.
Nothing is more aggravating than the
uninvited, contradicting voice popping into your head telling you what you are
doing is bad. If I could compare it to
anything it would be the hair in the mouth.
You know the hair is there, you don’t want it to be there, but usually
it is too elusive to remove. In most
cases, by the time you have removed the hair, you have lost all desire to
continue what you were doing before the hair caught your attention.
Twain also said “It takes up more
room than all the rest of a person’s insides” referring to his conscience. This comment is so true. It is the only part of your body that acts
entirely independently of your desire. While
it has no physical mass, it is the part of your body that is most noticeable—both
to you and to others. You internally can
hear the voice and act (or don’t act) accordingly. Externally, people see your actions which are
often the result of your conscience. The
kind and decent person is the person that listens to his conscience most
readily. Every person has the internal
struggle with the conscience the person who is the winner in life is the loser
to his conscience.
This is a clever blog. Sometimes having a conscience is such an inconvenience. Really, it can get in the way of so many ill-conceived ideas and really halt foolish actions. I always tease about my conscience because it really can be that elusive hair in your mouth that you just can't snatch. I am sorry that I missed seeing that particular quote in the book, because I think it is especially poignant. While I am grateful that Jiminy Cricket is on my side and helping me to make the correct decisions, he can appear at the most frustrating of times.
ReplyDeleteThe quote "It takes up more room that all the rest of a person's insides" rings true. It definitely feels like that much of the time. Certainly, guilt especially tends to feel this way. You can try to ignore it, but it continues to nag at you until it feels like a heavy weight.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. I enjoy reading about your view of "being seen as a good and wholesome person."
I really enjoyed this blog post. The conscience is such an interesting part about our minds. We often struggle with emotions like guilt when making a decision. It truly is that hair in your mouth that you're trying to get rid of, especially in situations where an important decision is being made.
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