SHAME QUOTES
quotations about shame
A shamefaced man makes a bad beggar.
HOMER
The Odyssey
Whate'ers begun in anger ends in shame.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1734
Soap won't wash away your shame.
DEPECHE MODE
"Shame"
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
Shame is probably the hardest emotion to sit with, to express. People go out of their way -- people drink themselves to death, people will murder -- not to feel shame. It's that much of a kicker.
RICK GOODWIN
"No room left for hate", St. Catharines Standard, September 8, 2017
I don't think shame is a bad thing. I think it actually moves you and pushes you to think differently about things.
BRYAN STEVENSON
"Is it time to tear down monuments to the Confederacy?", CBS News, September 10, 2017
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
The tendrils of shame clutched at them, however they turned, all the dirty words they knew commented on all they did.
JAMES BALDWIN
Another Country
Shame is an unhappy emotion invented by pietists in order to exploit the human race.
BLAKE EDWARDS
Victor/Victoria
Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.
BRENE BROWN
Daring Greatly
Shame isn't a quiet grey cloud, shame is a drowning man who claws his way on top of you, scratching and tearing your skin, pushing you under the surface.
KIRSTY EAGER
Raw Blue
Even when we do wrong, accountability is helpful, compassion is helpful, apology and forgiveness are helpful, but shame is not.
DEBRA CAMPBELL
"Peeling the Onion of Abuse and Shame", Huffington Post, September 14, 2017
We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinion, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Man and Superman
Shame is a particularly acute risk for mental illness.
NICOLA GATES
"Financial stress is widespread for Australians and it's taking its toll", Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 2017
When guilty shame wears a mask of curiosity, men are turned inside out, becoming strangers to themselves.
KOBO ABE
Secret Rendezvous
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
Who would envy a man who could not feel shame? Who would associate with a man who glories in his shame? In either case he evinces a heart depraved, a mind demoralized.
JOSEPH BARTLETT
Aphorisms on Men, Manners, Principles and Things
O shame! Where is thy blush?
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Hamlet
A man without shame stops at no vice.
PROCOPIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Richard II