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Shame Quotes

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Shame Quotes

“If fallacies come knocking at my door,I'd rather feed, and shelter full a score,Than hide behind the black portcullis, doubt,And run the risk of barring one Truth out.And if pretension for a time deceive,And prove me one too ready to believe,Far less my shame, than if by stubborn act,I brand as lie, some great colossal Fact.”

IfsBelieveFactsRunningLyingBlackBehindsDoubtRiskDoorsReadyProveShameBrandsScoreShelterDeceivingStubbornKnockingFallacyPretensionColossal
Book:Leafs On An Idle Breeze - My Inspirational Poems (Annotated Edition)
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“Being natural and matter-of-fact about nudity prevents your children from developing an attitude of shame or disgust about the human body. If parents are very secretive about their bodies and go to great lengths to prevent their children from ever seeing a buttock or breast, children will wonder what is so unusual, and even alarming, about human nudity.”

IfsHumansChildrenMatterFactsBodyParentNaturalAttitudeWonderSeeingShameOur ChildrenDevelopingYour ChildrenBreastsLengthUnusualDisgustingHuman BodyMatter Of FactNuditySecretiveButtocksBeing NaturalNudists
Author:Lee Salk
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“I believe that we are a story-driven species and that we understand how things are put together, in the context of narrative. It's a shame that science hasn't been taught that way, in a long time. It's usually the fact completely devoid of any human experience or any idea of how the scientist came to that conclusion.”

WayBelieveHumansLongIdeasFactsStoriesTogetherI BelieveTaughtLong TimeScientistShameSpeciesDrivenConclusionNarrativeHuman Experience
Author:Ann Druyan
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“We often wonder that certain men and women are left by God to the commission of sins that shock us. We wonder how, under the temptation of a single hour, they fall from the very heights of virtue and of honor into sin and shame. The fact is that there are no such falls as these, or there are next to none. These men and women are those who have dallied with temptation--have exposed themselves to the influence of it, and have been weakened and corrupted by it.”

MenHas BeensFactsCertainFallNextLeftHoursSinWonderVirtueInfluenceHonorMen And WomenShameTemptationHeightShockExposed
Author:J. G. Holland
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“The contempt which men feel for the prostitute, and the fact that they have always regarded themselves as far superior to her, even when they made use of her, suggests an attempt to rationalize the situation; it might be explained as an unconscious transference to the woman of the shame they feel for themselves in these relations.”

MenFeelsMadeFactsUseMightSituationRelationShameSuperiorsUnconsciousContemptProstitutionRationalizeTransference
Author:Alison Roberta Noble Neilans
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“we are beginning to understand that this instinct of sex which has been so great a cause of suffering and shame and has been treated as a subject fit only for furtive whispers or silly jokes, is in fact one of the greatest powers in human nature, and that its misuse is indeed 'the expense of spirit in a waste of shame.”

HumansHas BeensFactsSpiritSufferingSexCausesSubjectsHuman NatureFitWasteJokesShameInstinctSillyTreatedExpensesMisuse
Book:Sex and Common-sense
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“The psychological pain--and the ethical shame--of American poverty are made greater by the fact that this country possesses the wealth and the energy to raise all children to a minimally decent standard of living.”

ChildrenMadeCountryFactsPainEnergyWealthPovertyGreaterStandardsShameRaisesPsychologicalDecentEthicalStandards Of LivingPsychological PainAmerican Poverty
Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
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“When contemplating the pursuit of a dream or the start of a new venture, too many people are hesitant to begin because they can't comprehend the entire journey. If that's where you find yourself right now, don't expect to understand what it takes to get to the top. Just take the next step. There's no shame in starting small; in fact, if you don't start small, you'll probably never start at all.”

PeopleIfsFactsDreamNextStepsJourneyRight NowShameStartingPursuitFinding YourselfContemplatingVentureNext StepsHesitantNew Ventures
Author:John C. Maxwell
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“I can't say anything other than the fact that I feel a range of emotions including guilt, shame, sadness, betrayal, freedom and appreciation for those who have stood by me, been tough on me, and have taken the time to understand that there is a deeper story and not to believe everything they read in the newspapers.”

FeelsBelieveI CanFactsStoriesEmotionTakenSadnessToughShameGuiltIncludingAppreciationDeeperBetrayalNewspapersRangeSay AnythingRange Of Emotions
Author:Jayson Blair
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“I think there's a lot of shame in American race relations. There's a lot of suppressed guilt that lashes itself out still. I see that all the time, and whereas opposed to sort of trying to address the issue in an up-front way, they're attacking and thus perpetuating the problem thinking that they're being sophisticated and post-racial, when, in fact, they're being completely regressive.”

ThinkingWayTryingStillsFactsProblemRaceIssuesFrontsRelationShameGuiltPostsAddressesSophisticatedAttackingRace RelationsLashesPerpetuating
Author:Danny Strong
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“Nowhere has truth such a short life as in Sicily; a fact has scarcely happened five minutes before its genuine kernel has vanished, been camouflaged, embellished, disfigured, squashed, annihilated by imagination and self interest; shame, fear, generosity, malice, opportunism, charity, all the passions, good as well as evil, fling themselves onto the fact and tear it to pieces; very soon it has vanished altogether.”

WellsSelfFactsPassionEvilInterestImaginationFivePiecesHappenedMinutesTearsShameCharityGenuineGenerosityFive MinutesSelf InterestMaliceShort LifeFlingKernelOpportunism
Author:Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
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“It was a good script [Something New]. We have not seen an interracial issue dealt with from a black woman and white man's perspective in this way. And, usually, it's a black man, white woman. I loved the fact that it wasn't about the couple being against the world or the couple against the family. I loved the fact that it was her dealing with her own prejudices that came up, her own guilt, her own shame and embarrassment about what her peers thought.”

MenWorldWayFactsBlackWhiteIssuesPerspectiveCouplePrejudiceShameGuiltScriptsSomething NewPeersWhite ManBlack WomenEmbarrassment
Author:Sanaa Lathan
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“I read a lot of studies about the fact that there is a bias in the way health care is doled out, down to the fact that most medical studies are done on men, not women, so most dosages are planned for men, not women, and on and on. And more than that, women's pain is gauged differently and their complaints are received differently. And the idea that there's a place where you can go where everything is geared toward you, as a woman, is great. But it's a shame that we need to find places that are "safe" when the world, the whole world, should be a safe place.”

MenWorldWayNeedsShouldIdeasDoneWholeFactsCarePainStudySafeShameMedicalWhole WorldHealth CareBiasComplaintsSafe PlacesDosage
Author:Shonda Rhimes
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“I felt no shame in these activities, because I understood what almost no one else seemed to grasp: that there was only an infinitesimal difference, a difference so small that it barely existed except as a figment of the human imagination, between working in a tall green glass building on Park Avenue and collecting litter in a park. In fact, there may have been no difference at all.”

HumansMayHas BeensFactsFeltImaginationDifferencesBuildingActivityUnderstoodShameGreenGlassesParksTallAvenuesCollectingHuman ImaginationFigments
Author:Jennifer Egan
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“Feelings and stories of unworthiness and shame are perhaps the most binding element in the trance of fear. When we believe something is wrong with us, we are convinced we are in danger. Our shame fuels ongoing fear, and our fear fuels more shame. The very fact that we feel fear seems to prove that we are broken or incapable. When we are trapped in trance, being fearful and bad seem to define who we are. The anxiety in our body, the stories, the ways we make excuses, withdraw or lash out—these become to us the self that is most real.”

WayFeelsBelieveRealSelfFactsStoriesFeelingsBodySeemsDangerBrokenProveElementsAnxietyShameExcuseConvincedWho We AreFuelFearfulTrappedIncapableOngoingBindingLashesTrance
Author:Tara Brach
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“Shame usually follows a pattern—a cycle of self-recrimination and lies that claims life after life. First, we experience an intensely painful event. Second, we believe the lie that our pain and failure is who we are—not just something we’ve done, or had done to us—and we experience shame. And finally, our feelings of shame trap us into thinking that we can never recover—that, in fact, we don’t even deserve to.”

ThinkingFirstsBelieveSelfDoneFactsFeelingsPainLyingEventsDeserveClaimsShamePatternsPainfulWho We AreCyclesTraps
Book:The Christian Atheist: Believing in God But Living as If He Doesn't Exist
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“I haven't felt the excitement for so many years. I feel guilty beyond words about these things. When we're back-stage and the lights go out, and the manic roar of the crowd begins, it does not affect me. The fact is, I can't fool you. It isn't fair to you or to me. The worst crime I can think of is to trick people by faking it, and pretending to be having 100% fun.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsYearsDoeI CanFactsLightFunFeltWorstStageCrimeHavensFoolFairsShameGuiltCrowdsTricksGuiltyExcitementPretendingManicFaking It
Author:Robert Hilburn
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“War and culture, those are the two poles of Europe, her heaven and hell, her glory and shame, and they cannot be separated from one another. When one comes to an end, the other will end also and one cannot end without the other. The fact that no war has broken out in Europe for fifty years is connected in some mysterious way with the fact that for fifty years no new Picasso has appeared either.”

WayYearsTwoWarEndsFactsCultureFightingHeavenHellBrokenGloryEuropeShameConnectedMysteriousFiftyHeaven And HellNo WarMysterious Ways
Author:Milan Kundera
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“The difference between me and Bono is that he's quite happy to go and flatter people to get what he wants and he's very good at it, but I just can't do it. I'd probably end up punching them in the face rather than shaking their hand, so it's best that I stay out of their way. I can't engage with that level of bullshit. Which is a shame, really, and in a way it would help if I could, but I just can't. I admire the fact that Bono can, and can walk away from it smelling of roses.”

PeopleIfsWayWantI CanEndsFactsHelpingHandsFacesDifferencesWalksLevelsShameRoseVery GoodAdmireIf I CouldBullshitShakingPunching
Author:Thom Yorke
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“Now, suppose a Negro does something really magnificent, and I glory, not in the benefit to mankind, but in the fact that the doer was a Negro. Must I not also go hang my head in shame when a member of my race does something execrable? . . . The white race did not go into a laboratory and invent incandescent light. That was Edison. . . . If you are under the impression that every white man is an Edison, just look around a bit.”

IfsMenLooksDoeFactsLightBitsWhiteRaceMankindMembersBenefitsGloryShameImpressionMagnificentWhite ManLaboratoryDoersWhite Race
Author:Zora Neale Hurston
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“Knowing has two poles, and they are always poles apart: carnal knowing, the laying on of hands, the hanging of the fact by head or heels, the measurement of mass and motion, the calibration of brutal blows, the counting of supplies; and spiritual knowing, invisibly felt by the inside self, who is but a fought-over field of distraction, a stage where we recite the monotonous monologue that is our life, a knowing governed by internal tides, by intimations, motives, resolutions, by temptations, secrecy, shame, and pride.”

TwoSelfFactsHandsSpiritualSpiritualityFeltKnowledgeKnowingOur LivesStageFieldsPrideMassShameBlowTemptationMotiveInternalsResolutionDistractionTidesHeelsBrutalSecrecyCountingMeasurementSuppliesMonotonousMonologuesCalibration
Book:Finding a Form: Essays
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“It is rather the nature of America - our freewheeling, outspoken, prosperous, liberty-loving citizens extend equality to women, homosexuals, minorities, and almost anyone who comes to our shores, and thereby create desire and with it shame for that desire. Indeed, it is worse still than that: Precisely because we worry publicly that we are insensitive, our enemies scoff privately that we in fact are too sensitive - what we think is liberality and magnanimity they see as license and decadence. If we don't have confidence in who we are, why should they?”

IfsThinkingShouldStillsFactsAmericaDesireLibertyEnemyWorryCitizensShameSensitiveWho We AreMinoritiesShoreHomosexualLicenseProsperousHave ConfidenceDecadenceInsensitiveOutspokenMagnanimityLiberality
Author:Victor Davis Hanson
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“As a teenager in Brooklyn Quentin had often imagined himself engaged in martial heroics, but after this he knew, as a cold immutable fact, that he would do anything necessary, sacrificing whatever or whomever he had to, to avoid risking exposure to physical violence. Shame never came into it. He embraced his new identity as a coward. He would run in the other direction. He would lie down and cry and put his arms over his head or play dead. It didn't matter what he had to do, he would do it and be glad.”

MatterPlayFactsRunningLyingFearViolenceSacrificeCryIdentityArmsColdShameDown AndGladTeenagerEngagedCowardExposureBrooklynQuentinPhysical Violence
Book:The Magicians: A Novel
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