A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.

Doug Larson (1926–2017) was an American columnist and humorist whose work often appeared in newspapers as syndicated “Larsonisms”—compact, wry observations about everyday hypocrisy and self-deception. This quip belongs to that tradition of mid-to-late 20th-century American newspaper humor, where moral commentary is delivered through a punchy reversal. Rather than being tied to a single speech or event, the line circulates as an aphorism attributed to Larson, reflecting his recurring interest in how people rationalize their behavior and rewrite personal history to avoid guilt or accountability.

The remark draws a sharp distinction between innocence and forgetfulness. A “clear conscience” implies moral integrity—having nothing to feel guilty about—whereas a “short memory” suggests selective amnesia or convenient forgetting. Larson’s humor lies in exposing a common psychological dodge: people may feel untroubled not because they acted rightly, but because they have minimized, suppressed, or simply stopped recalling their wrongdoing. The line critiques self-exoneration and the ease with which memory (or the lack of it) can be mistaken for virtue, implying that ethical clarity requires honest remembrance and reckoning, not mere oblivion.