Elder St Paisios on the Conscience
“…when things are put in their proper place, the conscience is awakened and the censuring starts. And if a person is not humbled, he can be driven to despair because he’s unable to bear the truth. But if one is humbled, he can be helped indeed…there are no people who are born with a hardened conscience. God has not created such a conscience. But when someone covers up his faults, his conscience will in time become musty and hardened and unable to break through and censure him for these faults…Of course it’s self-deception.”
~ ‘Spiritual Struggle’