To me the quote means that people can always think for themselves and that it doesn't matter what the other people say. That people have control over their own minds and that nobody else should have a say in what peoples' personal opinions are. Majority rule is an idea that a whole bunch of other people have a factor in what the outcome of a situation is and that if more people vote for one outcome, then that is the one that is followed through with. But a person's conscience is strictly their own and nobody else has a say in what a person thinks.
There have been many situations when people have wanted to influence what I should or shouldn't do. Every teenager faces this as some point or another. I have a very strong conscience and therefore I always stop and think about all the possible outcomes of a situation, and all the consequences of my actions. I walk home from school nearly every day because I live within a mile. Ever since sixth grade I have been walking home from school because if you live within two miles you are supposed to either walk or get a ride home with a parent. The other day I was starting to walk out of school with my friend and turned to take the way home which I have been taking for years. My friend lives only a block away from me so when we walk home we walk together. She had a ton of books in her bag and begged me to walk down an intensely busy street that didn't have a sidewalk for pedestrians because it took ten minutes off the trip. My parents had strictly told me to take the longer way because the busy street was so dangerous, but I hadn't asked them in a couple years. Now I was older, but I still was skeptical of just taking this way when I had once been forbidden. Eventually my conscience told me not to do it without permission, and so I ended up calling my mom, who told me that it would be fine as long as I was careful. I realized that the quote seemed true for me too, and that other people couldn't influence my conscience.
