Do you think that your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness ?

@Mamapolo2016 To me it means something like this :
If I see something I like but taking it would be theft, then to what extent would my conscience go to remind me of the suffering that theft would cause to someone else ?

@Wraithorn I can’t make it mean that - maybe with some effort.

Truth of life is that those who steal rarely much care about the suffering of their victim. Or their conscience.

Foggy prose was popular, admired, even revered in the 70s.