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Shame Quotes

Browse 2566 quotes about Shame.

Shame Quotes

“I recently spoke at a university where a student told me it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had recently read a novel called American Psycho,and that it was a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.”

Men Character Young Father Novel Students Shame University Spokes Murderer Serials Psycho Abusers

Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Steal not this book for fear of shame For on it is the owners name And when you die the Lord will say Where is the book you stole away And when you say you do not know The Lord will say go down below.”

Knows Book Dies Names Lord Shame Stealing Owners

Book:LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY - The Woman Behind The Books: Autobiography & Private Letters (Including The Complete Anne of Green Gables Series, Emily Starr Trilogy & The Blue Castle): The Alpine Path (Memoirs), Complete Chronicles of Avonlea, The Story Girl, The Golden Road, Jane of Lantern Hill, Rainbow Valley, Emily of New Moon and more

Source: LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY - The Woman Behind The Books: Autobiography & Private Letters (Including The Complete Anne of Green Gables Series, Emily Starr Trilogy & The Blue Castle): The Alpine Path (Memoirs), Complete Chronicles of Avonlea, The Story Girl, The Golden Road, Jane of Lantern Hill, Rainbow Valley, Emily of New Moon and more

“To-morrow would bring its own trial with it; so would the next day, and so would the next; each its own trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterably grievous to be borne. The days of the far-off future would toil onward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame.”

Years Stills Next Bears Shame Misery Burden Trials Next Day Toil Morrow Fling

Book:The Scarlet Letter (Sparklesoup Classics)

Source: The Scarlet Letter (Sparklesoup Classics)

“Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.”

Humans Has Beens I Can Human Beings Mines Shame Live Life

Book:No Longer Human

Source: No Longer Human

“We each die countless little deaths on our way to the last. We die out of shame as humiliation. We perish from despair. And, of course, we die for love.”

Way Littles Lasts Dies Courses Despair Shame Humiliation

Author:Clive Barker

“What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.” “My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white. A little water clears us of this deed: How easy it is then! Your constancy hath left you unattended.”

Heart Littles Hands Eye Left Easy Water White Blood Sea Mines Ocean Red Shame Green Clean Deeds Colour Pluck Constancy Neptune

Author:William Shakespeare

“I kept getting high to kill my shame at the fact that I kept getting high.”

Facts Shame Getting High

Author:Jerry Stahl

“The way love feels is always only approximate. I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was.”

Knows Way Feels Know How Shame Ignorant Shameless Handmaids Tale

Book:The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“I thought, “I want to die. I want to die more than ever before. There’s no chance now of a recovery. No matter what sort of thing I do, no matter what I do, it’s sure to be a failure, just a final coating applied to my shame. That dream of going on bicycles to see a waterfall framed in summer leaves—it was not for the likes of me. All that can happen now is that one foul, humiliating sin will be piled on another, and my sufferings will become only the more acute. I want to die. I must die. Living itself is the source of sin.”

Want Matter Dream Happens Suffering Dies Chance Sin Source Summer Shame No Matter What Finals Likes Recovery Bicycle Foul Wanting To Die Humiliating Framed Waterfalls I Want To Die

Book:No Longer Human

Source: No Longer Human

“Wicked people means people who have no love: therefore, they have no shame. They have the power to ask love because the don't need it: they have the power to offer it because they have none to give.”

People Needs Giving Mean Asks Offers Shame Wicked No Love Mean People

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“Fool witch once, shame on you. Fool witch twice, oozing sores and an eternal rash in private areas.”

Fool Eternal Areas Shame Witch Shame On You

Book:Wicked By Any Other Name

Source: Wicked By Any Other Name

“Maybe the girl would get strong enough to withstand an ink exchange with one of the chosen faeries. If not, he could always give her to one of the weaker fey. It seemed a shame to waste a lovely broken toy.”

Ifs Giving Enough Girl Strong Broken Waste Shame Lovely Chosen Toys Ink Strong Enough Faerie Fey Ink Exchange

Book:Ink Exchange

Source: Ink Exchange

“Anyone worth knowing breaks once. Once. No shame, no foul if you survive it. You did.”

Ifs Break Knowing Shame Foul

Book:Bloodfever: Fever Series

Source: Bloodfever: Fever Series

“Adam gave me a scandalized look. "Fraternizing with the enemy!" he cried. "For shame, wench!”

Looks Enemy Shame Adam Cried Wenches

Book:Grave Doubts

Source: Grave Doubts

“... there is no shame in not knowing. The problem arises when irrational thought and attendant behavior fill the vacuum left by ignorance.”

Problem Left Knowing Ignorance Behavior Shame Arise Not Knowing Irrational Vacuums Mind Blowing

Book:The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist

Source: The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist

“A missing arm might ruin your symmetry. Personal asymmetry where I come from is a big taboo and brings great shame on the family and sometimes even the whole village." "Do you then have to kill yourself over it or something?" "Goodness me, no! The family and village just have to learn to be ashamed--and nuts to them for being so oversensitive.”

Sometimes Whole Bigs Might Missing Arms Goodness Shame Ruins Ashamed Over It Village Nuts Taboo Symmetry Killing Yourself Asymmetry

Author:Jasper Fforde

“If either wealth or poverty are come by honesty, there is no shame.”

Ifs Wealth Poverty Honesty Shame

Author:Confucius

“I am marked like a road map from head to toe with my repressions. You can travel the length and breadth of my body over superhighways of shame and inhibition and fear.”

Body Shame Length Maps Toes Repression Breadth Inhibitions Road Maps

Author:Philip Roth

“Shame was an emotion he had abandoned years earlier. Addicts know no shame. You disgrace yourself so many times you become immune to it.”

Knows Years Emotion Shame Addiction Recovery Abandoned Addict Disgrace Immune

Author:John Grisham

“Being tired of all illusions and of everything about illusions – the loss of illusions, the uselessness of having them, the prefatigue of having to have them in order to lose them, the sadness of having had them, the intellectual shame of having had them knowing that they would have to end this way.”

Way Ends Order Loses Loss Knowing Sadness Intellectual Illusion Shame Tired Uselessness Book Of Disquiet

Author:Fernando Pessoa

“My wife and I were present at this congress. Sabina told me, "Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face." I said to her, "If I do so, you lose your husband." She replied, "I don't wish to have a coward as a husband.”

Ifs Said Faces Wish Christ Loses Wife Husband Shame Congress My Wife Coward Your Husband

Author:Richard Wurmbrand

“She had taken him for granted, she thought with surprise and shame, watching the flickering candlelight. She had assumed his kindness was so natural and so innate, she had never asked herself whether it cost him any effort. Any effort to stand between Will and the world, protecting each of them from the other. Any effort to accept the loss of his family with equanimity. Any effort to remain cheerful and calm in the face of his own dying.”

World Faces Natural Loss Effort Accepting Kindness Taken Dying Cost Shame Surprise Calm Granted Cheerful Innate Equanimity Candlelight

Book:The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess

Source: The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess

“And the council doesn’t recognize any kind of temporary insanity defense. Which was a real shame, because most of the councilmen had considered me crazy for most of my life.”

Kind Real Crazy Shame Defense Insanity Temporary Council Temporary Insanity

Book:Prey

Source: Prey

“But tonight, because Rome had fallen and Felix was dead, because of Valerius’s shame, the empty hut seemed horribly lonely, and there was a small aching need in him for somebody to notice, even if they were not glad, that he had come home.”

Ifs Needs Home Lonely Empty Shame Glad Fallen Tonight Coming Home Rome Huts

Author:Rosemary Sutcliff

“I suppose that a lifetime spent hiding one's erotic truth could have a cumulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.”

Kind Effects Shame Lifetime Hiding Erotic Cumulative

Book:Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Source: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

“There's no shame in fear. But understand this - the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion.”

Fear Hero Shame Coward Stallions

Book:Dark Moon

Source: Dark Moon

“Did you love Melanie?" asked Adam unexpectedly. There was no pause before I shook my head. "That's a shame," said Adam. "Why?" "Well, someone as special as your daughter should've been... made with love.”

Should Wells Made Said Special Daughter Shame Adam Pauses Your Daughter Made With Love

Author:Malorie Blackman

“Falling in love has been greatly overrated. Falling in love consists of 45 percent fear of not being accepted, 45 percent manic hope that this time the fear will be put to shame and a modest 10 percent frail awareness of the possibility of love. I don't fall in love any more. Just like I don't get the mumps.”

Has Beens Fall Awareness Possibility Percent Shame Falling In Love Accepted Modest Overrated Frail Manic Being Accepted Don't Fall In Love

Author:Peter Høeg

“Silence is not just about secrecy, Your Majesty. It is grief and it is shame.”

Grief Silence Shame Silence Is Secrecy Majesty

Author:Melina Marchetta

“In the end there is nothing to be done but to state clearly what has been done, without shame or regret, and say: Here I am, and this is what I am. Now deal with me as you see fit. That is your right. Mine is to stand by the act, and pay the price. You do what you must do, and pay for it. So in the end all things are simple.”

Has Beens Ends States Done Simple Deals Pay Mines Regret Fit All Things Shame Here I Am Pay The Price

Book:Brother Cadfael: The Complete Chronicles

Source: Brother Cadfael: The Complete Chronicles

“And no, it wasn't shame I now felt, or guilt, but something rarer in my life and stronger than both: remorse. A feeling which is more complicated, curdled, and primeval. Whose chief characteristic is that nothing can be done about it: too much time has passed, too much damage has been done, for amends to be made.”

Has Beens Made Done Feelings Felt Too Much Stronger Shame Guilt Complicated Chiefs Damage Characteristics Remorse Amends Primeval

Book:The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

“I was not much afraid of punishment, I was only afraid of disgrace.But that I feared more than death, more than crime, more than anything in the world. I should have rejoiced if the earth had swallowed me up and stifled me in the abyss. But my invincible sense of shame prevailed over everything . It was my shame that made me impudent, and the more wickedly I behaved the bolder my fear of confession made me. I saw nothing but the horror of being found out, of being publicly proclaimed, to my face, as a thief, as a liar, and slanderer.”

Ifs World Should Made Earth Faces Found Saws Crime Horror Should Have Shame Punishment Liars Thieves Confession Abyss Disgrace Invincible

Book:The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Source: The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel. "You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know," Haymitch says.”

Knows Feels Enough Strong Hundred Deserve Shame Lifetime Strong Enough Catching Fire Haymitch

Book:Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)

Source: Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)

“...the men of the Ulysses had no need to stand in shame...many had found, or were finding, that the point of no return was not necessarily the edge of the precipice: it could be the bottom of the valley, the beginning of the long climb up the far slope, and when a man had once begun that climb he never looked back to that other side.”

Men Needs Long Found Sides Return Findings Shame Bottom Edges Climbs Valleys Slopes Precipice Ulysses

Author:Alistair Maclean

“You said he was a soldier. You don't suppose...?" "Oh, Gods." Ignata blinked. "You think something could be wrong down there?" All of them looked at William, who chose this precise moment to slide the wet shirt back on his back, which required him to flex, raising his arms. "That would be a shame," Cerise murmured.”

Thinking Said Moments Would Be Arms Shame Soldier Shirts Wet Precise Slides

Author:Ilona Andrews

“one must verge on the unknown, write toward the truth hitherto unrecognizable of one’s own sincerity, including the avoidable beauty of doom, shame, and embarrassment, that very area of personal self-recognition,(detailed individual is universal remember) which formal conventions, internalized, keep us from discovering in ourselves and others”

Writing Self Remember Individual Areas Universal Shame Including Recognition Sincerity Conventions Discovering Formal Doom Embarrassment Verge Self Recognition

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“A man's character is like his house. If he tears boards off his house and burns them to keep himself warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin. If he tells lies to be able to do the things he shouldn't do but wants to, his character will soon become a ruin. A man with a ruined character is a shame on the face of the earth.”

Ifs Men Want Character Able Earth Faces Lying House Tears Comfortable Shame Warm Ruins Boards Ruined

Book:Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers

Source: Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers

“Keep the change, Gin," McCallister said in a smarmy, mocking voice. "Consider it an early Christmas present." "Aw," I drawled. "A whopping thirteen cents. You're too kind, Jonah. Why, you'd put Ebezener Scrooge to shame with your bighearted generosity.”

Kind Said Voice Shame Generosity Cents Thirteen Gin Jonah Christmas Present Scrooge

Author:Jennifer Estep

“You will be interested to hear, Hilary, that it [the drug] had a most remarkable effect — even on Selena after a very modest quantity. She cast off all conventional restraints and devoted herself without shame to the pleasure of the moment." I asked for particulars of this uncharacteristic conduct. "She took from her handbag a paperback edition of Pride and Prejudice and sat on the sofa reading it, declining all offers of conversation.”

Moments Reading Pleasure Effects Pride Drug Offers Conversation Prejudice Shame Casts Sat Remarkable Quantity Devoted Conventional Modest Restraint Sofas Handbags

Author:Sarah Caudwell

“Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.”

Ifs Looks I Can Self Feelings Belief Perfect Judgment Shame Blame Painful Primaries Fuel Destructive Perfectionism Belief Systems Self Destructive Painful Feelings

Book:Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

“When you visit countries that don't nurture these kinds of ambitions, you can feel th absence of hope...people are reduced to worrying only about that day's shelter or the next day's meal. It's a shame, even a tragedy, how many people do not get to think about the future. Technology coupled with wise leadership not only solves these problems but enables dreams of tomorow.”

People Thinking Feels Kind Country Problem Dream Next Technology Worry Wise Ambition Tragedy Shame Solve Absence Meals Shelter Nurture Next Day

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath not to do with innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you.”

Thinking Giving Feels Moments Land Serious Pages Laughter Shame Harm Innocent Fancy Mirth Serious Things

Book:The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Source: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

“Are you one of those people who says on a first date, 'I'm really not in a hurry to meet somebody, I figure if it happens, it happens'? Because those are the most desperate people of all. I'm just saying this so that if you are this person, you aren't hiding it from anybody. There is no shame in being hungry for another person. There is no shame in wanting very much to share your life with somebody.”

People Ifs Firsts Persons Happens Share Figures Shame Hungry Desperate Hiding Just Saying First Date

Author:Augusten Burroughs

“Children learn what they live. Put kids in a class and they will live out their lives in an invisible cage, isolated from their chance at community; interrupt kids with bells and horns all the time and they will learn that nothing is important or worth finishing; ridicule them and they will retreat from human association; shame them and they will find a hundred ways to get even. The habits taught in large-scale organizations are deadly.”

Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

“We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering and shame.In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness,all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing.”

Way War Hard Eye Suffering Steps Poverty Shame Killing Indifference Contempt Execution Riot Disrespect Every Step

Author:Hermann Hesse

“Everything outside was elegant and savage and fleshy. Everything inside was slow and cool and vacant. It seemed a shame to stay inside.”

Shame Savages Elegant Vacant

Author:John Cheever

“It's a shame you left without a word, you know. She was just beginning to trust you before that. Before you got angry. Before you ran off. Just like every other man in her life. Lusting after her, full of sweet words, then just walking away. Leaving her alone. Good thing she's used to it by now, isn't it? Otherwise you might have hurt her. Otherwise you just might have broken that poor girl's heart”

Knows Men Heart Might Used Girl Left Hurt Poor Sweet Broken Walking Shame Angry Good Things Leaving Lust Ran Walking Away Sweet Words

Author:Patrick Rothfuss

“Life...as God intended it enables us to live above the drag of fear, superstition, shame, pessimism, guilt, anxiety, worry, and all the negativity that keeps people from seizing each day as a gift from Him.”

People Fear Worry Anxiety Shame Guilt Each Day Pessimism Drag Superstitions Negativity Seizing

Author:Charles R. Swindoll

“We remain silent because we've taken on a responsibility and/or shame that was never ours to carry. Forgive yourself for things that were not your fault. Bad decisions, mistaken trust, physical weakness, or too much fear to act do not make an assault on you or someone you care about your fault. Ever.”

Care Decision Responsibility Taken Too Much Weakness Shame Forgiving Faults Silent Mistaken Assault Forgive Yourself Bad Decision

Author:Tammara Webber

“No one should be ashamed to speak up. Shame makes it easy for neglect and abuse and bullying to stay huddled together in their dark corner. It’s time to throw the switch on this spotlight. If I can inspire other kids to speak their truth, then everything I’ve been through will have been worth it.”

Ifs Should Has Beens I Can Kids Together Speak Easy Dark Inspire Abuse Shame Corners Ashamed Neglect Bullying Worth It Spotlight Inspire Others

Book:Keep Holding On

Source: Keep Holding On