Remorse is a deeper sense. Guilt is you *thinking* you did something bad and it makes you feel bad. Remorse is you *feeling* it to the point that you change your behavior. Examples: you say I'm sorry, you have acknowledged you did something bad. That's your guilty conscience. You burst into tears and you never ever do it again. That's your remorse.

Hi, they are not interchangeable, although closely related. A guilty conscience implies something which is secret - it is your conscience that is troubling you and therefore it is internal and passive. Remorse is displayed, active and is not being nudged by the unconscious conscience - it is very much at the forefront of your mind and you feel the pain of the error you have made. So if i start to behave furtively and someone else becomes suspicious of my behaviour they might suggest i'm behaving out of character because I have a 'guilty conscience' and whilst I am trying to conceal something bad, my conscience is *unconsciously* prompting me to come clean, hence my suspicious behaviour. It is a sign of my conscience trying to give my away whilst my conscious mind seeks to cover for my behaviour. If I was caught though and upon being faced with the devastation my actions caused to those I loved, then I might feel remorse. This would be consciously felt and usually cuts deeper than a sorry will cover. Remorse implies an action that is impossible to ever make up for - although this is not strict in terms of the interpretation of the word, it is common to only associate it with large actions which cannot be made right. Criminals are usually given lighter sentences if they express sincere remorse for their actions.

Certainly related but not interchangeable . A guilty conscience is something you might HAVE, but remorse is something you might FEEL if you have a guilty conscience. GC is knowing you did something wrong, R is feeling bad about it.