Quotes about shame

"Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants."

Burke, Edmund on shame   

"Study carefully, the character of the one you recommend, lest their misconduct bring you shame."

Cicero, Marcus T. on shame   

"What a man is ashamed of is always at bottom himself; and he is ashamed of himself at bottom always for being afraid."

Collingwood, Robin G. on shame   

"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."

Gaylen, Willard on shame   

"See! those fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness, the writhed lip of scorn, the mockery of that living eye, the pointed finger, touching the sore place in your heart! Do you remember any act of enormous folly, at which you would blush, even in the remotest cavern of the earth? Then recognize your Shame."

Hawthorne, Nathaniel on shame   

"One of the misfortunes of our time is, that in getting rid of false shame, we have killed off so much real shame as well."

Kronenberger, Louis on shame   

"The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but the ignominy, the humiliation we feel that we must be what we are without any choice in the matter, and that this humiliation is seen by everyone."

Kundera, Milan on shame   

"The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on shame   

"Where the mind is past hope, the heart is past shame."

Lyly, John on shame   

"Ashamed of the many frailties they feel within, all men endeavor to hide themselves, their ugly nakedness, from each other, and wrapping up the true motives of their hearts in the specious cloak of sociableness, and their concern for the public good, they are in hopes of concealing their filthy appetites and the deformity of their desires."

Mandeville, Bernard on shame   

"Shame is worse than death."

Proverb, Russian on shame
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"Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit."

Seneca on shame   

"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 opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins."

Shaw, George Bernard on shame   

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"I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed."

Swift, Jonathan on shame
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"When all our deeds of glory are laid in front of Thee, When You ask what Man hath wrought, don't rest Your gaze on me."

Dover, Connie on shame