Reason and conscience

The ordinary way of organizing the mind is to make reason the instrument of our desires, and let conscience be the brake. But conscience was never match for reason. Reason is always crafty enough to find a loophole, a detour, a way of placating conscience and getting exactly what it wants. A mind organized this way amounts to a life of petty egoism restrained only by prudence, in which genuine virtue has no part. Only when reason is on the side of what is highest in ourselves can we hope to elevate ourselves above the ordinary.