clear conscience, to have a

To feel free from blame, obligation, or a similar burden because one is guiltless (or so believes). The sixteenth- century writer John Lyly used the term several times in his Euphues (1580)—“a cleere conscience is a sure card”—and the same phrase turned up in James Howell’s proverb collection of 1659. Nearly a century later Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Keep Conscience clear, then never fear” (Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1749).