GUILT QUOTES II
quotations about guilt
Shame is closely related to guilt, but there is a key qualitative difference. No audience is needed for feelings of guilt, no one else need know, for the guilty person is his own judge. Not so for shame. The humiliation of shame requires disapproval or ridicule by others. If no one ever learns of a misdeed there will be no shame, but there still might be guilt. Of course, there may be both. The distinction between shame and guilt is very important, since these two emotions may tear a person in opposite directions. The wish to relieve guilt may motivate a confession, but the wish to avoid the humiliation of shame may prevent it.
PAUL EKMAN
Telling Lies
He declares himself guilty who justifies himself before accusation.
THOMAS FULLER
Gnomologia
Guilt, guilt, its pious expression alone is in fact today's great absolution. Just say the guilt prayer, "I feel guilty," and hey presto, that's the punishment. The guilt is the punishment. So punished, and therefore cleansed, one can continue with the crime.
JOSEPHINE HART
Damage
The sin lessens as the guilt increases.
FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Women are raised to feel guilty if they don't do everything they should do. Men are more likely to feel guilty if they do something they shouldn't.
GEORGIA WITKIN-LANOIL
The Courier, September 16, 1984
When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.
ANTHONY DE MELLO
One Minute Wisdom
The guilty are punished because they deserve to be; their punishment is what their crime requires.
JAMES B. SOUTH
Buffy the Vampire and Philosophy
I've got a bad case of the 3:00 am guilts -- you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn't do right? Because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing.
D. D. BARANT
Dying Bites
None seem to bear the imputation of supposed guilt with greater intolerance than such as are, on other occasions, obviously culpable of vice or crime.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
The hands of the guilty don't necessarily tremble; only in stories does a dropped glass betray agitation. Tension is more often shown in the studied action.
GRAHAM GREENE
The Third Man
In the breast of the guilty there dwells a fury, which tears the bosom night and day, until the wretch is overwhelmed to the depth that he has sinned.
METASTASIO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Yet sin is forgiven and the guilty are pardoned. The gracious provision of the scheme of Redemption.
THOMAS ROBINSON
Homiletical Commentary on the Book of Job
The difference between guilt and shame is very clear--in theory. We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are.
LEWIS B. SMEDES
Shame and Grace
I was always fraught with guilt, and it's such a waste of an emotion. It keeps you out of the moment of being where you are.
KYRA SEDGWICK
Good Housekeeping, Jan. 2011
Guilt is universal.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
foreword, Sweet Bird of Youth
The problem with guilt is that it cements you to the past.
KEVIN LEMAN
It's Your Kid
Guilt is the source of sorrows; 'tis the fiend, the avenging fiend that follows us behind with whips and stings.
NICHOLAS ROWE
The Fair Penitent
If a mother was Sacrifice personified, then a daughter was Guilt, with no possibility of redress.
MILAN KUNDERA
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Guilt is oftentimes the strongest witness against itself.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
To be judged by the state as an innocent, is to be guilty. It is to sanction, through passivity and obedience, the array of crimes carried out by the state.
CHRIS HEDGES
"Happy as a Hangman", truthdig, December 6, 2010