Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Another of Lord Henry’s aphorisms and paradoxes. Most people would view conscience and cowardice as two very different things. But Henry says that when people call their actions an act of conscience, they really mean they acted out of cowardice. He has no time for conscience or morality.