The quiet judge

Almost every language has a word for the quiet voice that speaks after we have done something we are not proud of. In English that word is conscience. It is not a rule written in a book, and it is not a policeman waiting outside the door. It is a judge that lives inside a person and works without a salary.

Many people say that conscience is strongest in the evening, when the noise of the day is gone. A shopkeeper may notice that a customer has left too much money on the counter. Nobody saw it, and nobody will ever know. Yet he feels a small weight in his chest until he runs into the street and returns the coins. That weight is conscience at work.

Shakespeare's Hamlet admits that conscience can also be a burden, because it makes us afraid to act. But a clear conscience is a kind of freedom. People who live with it sleep well and look others in the eye. Different cultures may argue about what the consciences of their members should say, but they all agree that a person without any conscience at all is a danger to everyone around him.