bad conscience
Moral self-accusation
Bad conscience is the uneasy awareness that you've done something wrong or failed to do something right.
It's guilt that lingers, the internal discomfort of knowing your actions didn't match your values: He couldn't enjoy his promotion—bad conscience about how he'd gotten it.
The phrase often appears when someone acts against their better judgment or betrays a trust.
- guiltMoral self-reproach
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- remorseGuilt for wrongdoing
- regretSorrow over past actions
- naggingPersistent bothering or complaining
gnawing · eating away at · sleepless · sleepless nights · confession · wrongdoing · haunted · uneasy · inner turmoil · troubled · moral · sin · burden · weight · torment · secret · skeleton in the closet · lying
- guiltguilty, guilt trip, remorseful, contrition, remorse
- Nietzschewill to power, overman, superman, slave morality, Zarathustra
bad conscienceclear conscience
Freedom from moral guilt
good conscience · clean conscience · guiltlessness · self-righteousness · righteousness
bad consciencepeace of mind
State without anxiety
inner peace · tranquility · serenity · contentment · equanimity
badness, conscience, consciences, conscious, consciously, consciousness, unconscious, unconsciously, unconsciousness