Binge on life. Purge negativity. Starve guilty feelings.
I have never done anything which I feel guilty about or wish I had not done it.
– Amit Shah
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. A person feels guilt because he did something wrong. A person feels shame because he is something wrong. We may feel guilty because we lied to our mother. We may feel shame because we are not the person our mother wanted us to be.
– Lewis B. Smedes
Shame and guilt are noble emotions essential in the maintenance of civilized society, and vital for the development of some of the most refined and elegant qualities of human potential.
– Willard Gaylin
Guilt is an indulgence, it entangles you in the past.
– Gregg Hurwitz
Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.
– Saint Augustine
Guilt: punishing yourself before God doesn’t.
– Alan Cohen
Guilt is anger directed at ourselves – at what we did or did not do. Resentment is anger directed at others – at what they did or did not do.
– Peter McWilliams
What is guilt? It is moral self-reproach-I did wrong when it was possible to have done otherwise.
– Nathaniel Branden
Guilt is present in the very hesitation, even though the deed be not committed.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
Guilt is the one burden human beings can’t bear alone.
– Anais Nin
A guilty conscience never feels secure.
– Publilius Syrus
Guilt is the sum total of: All the negative feelings we have ever had about ourselves! Any form of self-hatred, self-rejection, feelings of worthlessness, sinfulness, inferiority, incompetence, failure, or emptiness. The feeling that there are things in us that are lacking or missing or incomplete.
– Kenneth Wapnick
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
He declares himself guilty who justifies himself before accusation.
– Proverb
Guilt is the price we pay willingly for doing what we are going to do anyway.
– Isabelle Holland
Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.
Guilt is the very nerve of sorrow.
– Horace Bushnell
Guilt is also a way for us to express to others that we are a person of good conscience.
– Tom Hodgkinson
In an extroverted society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent.
– Criss Jami
Maybe there’s more we all could have done, but we just have to let the guilt remind us to do better next time.
– Veronica Roth
Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge.
– Audre Lorde
Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt.
– Plautus
Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.
– Henry Fielding
With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.
– Zig Ziglar
People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.
– Eckhart Tolle
Secret guilt is by silence revealed.
– John Dryden
The difference between shame and guilt is the difference between “I am bad” and “I did something bad”.
– Brene Brown
Guilt is just as powerful, but its influence is positive, while shame’s is destructive. Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement.
– Brene Brown
Whoever profits by the crime is guilty of it.