Quotessence
Home / Topics / Shame Quotes

Shame Quotes

Browse 2566 quotes about Shame.

Related topics

IfsPeopleMenThinkingFeelsGuiltKnowsWayShouldWantWorldAshamedHumansNeedsSelfFeelingsTryingHeartPersonsGivingMadeDoeMayKindNamesLittlesPainRealFirstsLongPrideStillsHas BeensSaidWould BeEndsMeanEnoughSinCountryLooksYearsGloryMindBodyChildrenDoneReasonWellsEyeSoulBelieveFacesWarCausesLyingSufferingWritingMatterEmotionHandsHardMomentsPastSometimesYoungDiesFactsFeltI CanJoyTwoAbleUsedVirtueAsksBlameHateLostMightSecretShowsUseChristianHelpingKnowingGirlGuiltyHumiliationLightMistakeSorrowChristDesireFightingMovingRegretStoriesStrongArtmore

Shame Quotes

“I would hate to think I'm promoting sadness as an aesthetic. But I grew up in not just a family but a town and a culture where sadness is something you're taught to feel shame about. You end up chronically desiring what can be a very sentimental idea of love and connection. A lot of my work has been about trying to make a space for sadness.”

ThinkingFeelsTryingHas BeensIdeasEndsHateCultureSpaceSadnessTaughtGrewGrew UpConnectionsTownsShameAestheticSentimentalPromoting
Author:Mike Mills
Create image

“I believe that mothers should tell the truth, even - no, especially - when the truth is difficult. It's always easier, and in the short term can even feel right, to pretend everything is okay, and to encourage your children to do the same. But concealment leads to shame, and of all hurts shame is the most painful.”

FeelsShouldBelieveChildrenMotherI BelieveDifficultTermHurtInspiringEasierTruth IsOkayShamePainfulYour ChildrenTelling The TruthMothers DayShort TermFeels RightConcealment
Book:Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace
Create image

“One of the darkest, deepest shames so many of us mothers feel nowadays is our fear that we are Bad Mothers, that we are failing our children and falling far short of our own ideals.”

FeelsChildrenMotherFallInspiringFailingIdealsShameOur ChildrenMothers DayBad Mother
Book:Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace
Create image

“Think of all the women you know who will not allow themselves to be seen without makeup. I often wonder how they feel about themselves at night when they are climbing into bed with intimate partners. Are they overwhelmed with secret shame that someone sees them as they really are? Or do they sleep with rage that who they really are can be celebrated or cared for only in secret?”

ThinkingKnowsFeelsNightSleepSecretWonderBedShameRagePartnersIntimateMakeupClimbingOverwhelmedWithout Makeup
Author:Bell Hooks
Create image

“We have made men proud of most vices, but not of cowardice. Whenever we have almost succeeded in doing so, God permits a war or an earthquake or some other calamity, and at once courage becomes so obviously lovely and important even in human eyes that all our work is undone, and there is still at least one vice of which they feel genuine shame. The danger of inducing cowardice in our patients, therefore, is lest we produce real self-knowledge and self-loathing, with consequent repentance and humility.”

MenFeelsHumansMadeStillsImportantWarRealSelfEyeDangerProduceHumilityProudShamePatientVicesLovelyGenuineRepentancePermitCowardiceSelf KnowledgeCalamityEarthquakesUndoneLoathingSelf LoathingReal SelfHuman Eyes
Author:C. S. Lewis
Create image

“(You do not have to be shamed in my closeness. Family are the people who must never make you feel ashamed.) (You are wrong. Family are the people who must make you feel ashamed when you are deserving of shame.) (And you are deserving of shame?) (I am. I am trying to tell you.) 'We were stupid,' he said, 'because we believed in things.' 'Why is this stupid?' 'Because there are not things to believe in.' (Love?) (There is no love. Only the end of love.) (Goodness?) (Do not be a fool.) (God?) (If God exists, He is not to be believed in.)”

PeopleIfsFeelsTryingBelieveSaidEndsStupidFoolGoodnessShameAshamedDeservingNo LoveClosenessGod ExistsBelieve In Love
Book:Everything Is Illuminated
Create image

“Well, it's New Year's now but I don't feel that way anymore. I wonder if you do either. Something's happening to me. It's like I'm shrinking smaller and smaller and I can't stp it. There's just os much wrong that I can't imagine the shame in admitting even the tiniest part of it. When you left it was like there was this huge gap to fill, but instead of spreading wide enough to do it I just fell right in, and I'm still falling. Like I'm half-asleep, and I can't wake up, can't wake up.”

IfsWayFeelsYearsWellsStillsI CanEnoughFallLeftHalfWonderImagineHugeHappeningsWake UpShameWideGapsNew YearAdmittingShrinking
Author:Sarah Dessen
Create image

“Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them. Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed. I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room. The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yet hug it in love. My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.”

WantFeelsTryingHeartArtCertainHateAsksFearWealthPrayerRoomsSecretBreakMy HeartI HateShameHeavyDebtDustGrantedTheeAshamedHugAcheMy Best FriendPricelessObstinateShroudsHeart AcheTinselQuakeMy Heart Aches
Book:Gitanjali - Song Offerings
Create image

“Mari remembered what she had read in the young girl's eyes the moment she had come into the refectory: fear. Fear. Veronika might feel insecurity, shyness, shame, constraint, but why fear? That was only justifiable when confronted by a real threat: ferocious animals, armed attackers, earthquakes, but not a group of people gathered together in a refectory. But human beings are like that,' she thought. 'We've replaced nearly all our emotions with fear.”

PeopleFeelsHumansRealMomentsMightEyeTogetherYoungGirlFearHuman BeingsAnimalEmotionGroupsShameThreatRememberedInsecurityReplacedConstraintsEarthquakesShyness
Author:Paulo Coelho
Create image

“He leant his two elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands and remained rapt in dumb meditation. On my inquiring the subject of his thoughts, he answered gravely 'I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!' 'For shame, Heathcliff!' said I. 'It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive.' 'No, God won’t have the satisfaction that I shall,' he returned. 'I only wish I knew the best way! Let me alone, and I'll plan it out: while I'm thinking of that I don't feel pain.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayFeelsShouldTryingLongSaidI CanTwoHandsCarePainLastsDiesWishWaitingPayMeditationPlansSubjectsLet MeShameForgivingSatisfactionDon't CareBest WayDumbI Don't CareSettlingKneesWickedMe AloneChinsElbowsInquiringHeathcliffLearn To Forgive
Book:Wuthering Heights
Create image

“I'd still thought that everything I thought about that night-the shame, the fear-would fade in time. But that hadn't happened. Instead, the things that I remembered, these little details, seemed to grow stronger, to the point where I could feel their weight in my chest. Nothing, however stuck with me more than the memory of stepping into that dark room and what I found there, and how the light then took that nightmare and made it real.”

FeelsLittlesMadeStillsRealLightNightFoundGrowsFearMemoriesDarkRoomsHappenedWeightStrongerShameDetailsStuckMade ItRememberedNightmareChestsFadesDark Room
Author:Sarah Dessen
Create image

“Naturally I feel no shame in writing these things because of the time which separates the moment when they are written--when only I can see them--from the moment when they will be read by other people, a moment which I feel will never come. By then I could have had an accident or died; a war or a revolution could have broken out. This delay makes it possible for me to write today, in the same way I used to lie in the scorching sun for a whole day at sixteen, or make love wihout contraceptives at twenty: without thinking about the consequences”

PeopleThinkingWayFeelsWritingI CanWarWholeMomentsTodayUsedLyingSunWrittenBrokenRevolutionConsequenceDiedTwentiesShameAccidentsMaking LoveDelaySixteenContraceptivesScorching
Book:Simple Passion
Create image

“There is a certain kind of pain that can change you. Even the strongest sword, when placed in a raging fire, will soften and bend and change its form... Trust me on this one. I know this from personal experience. I hope that you never will, but, since you're a person, and therefore prone to making horrible, soul-splitting mistakes, you probably will one day know what this kind of guilt and shame feels like. And when that time comes, I hope you have the strength...to take advantage of the fire and reshape your own sword.”

KnowsFeelsKindPersonsSoulPainFormCertainMistakeFireOne DayAdvantageShameGuiltRageHorribleStrongestTrust MePersonal ExperiencesSplitting
Author:Adam Gidwitz
Create image

“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.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsKindCountryProblemDreamNextTechnologyWorryWiseAmbitionTragedyShameSolveAbsenceMealsShelterNurtureNext Day
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“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
Create image

“But all I feel is impatience, fury for the opposition I anticipate and the lies I'm going to have to tell to make it happen, and frustration that I can't even take a walk without them sending someone to hover. Attack me," she said. "I beg your pardon, Lady Queen?" "You should attack me, and we'll see what he does. He's probably quite bored--it'll be a relief to him." "Mightn't he run me through with his sword?" "Oh." Bitterblue chuckled. "Yes, I suppose he might. That would be a shame." "I'm gratified that you think so," said Giddon dryly.”

ThinkingFeelsShouldDoeSaidI CanMightHappensWould BeRunningLyingWalksShameBoredQueensReliefOppositionFrustrationFuryPardonImpatienceAnticipateMake It Happen
Book:Bitterblue
Create image

“Most of our difficulties, our hopes, and our worries are empty fantasies. Nothing has ever existed except this moment. That's all there is. That's all we are. Yet most human beings spend 50 to 90 percent or more of their time in their imagination, living in fantasy. We think about what has happened to us, what might have happened, how we feel about it, how we should be different, how others should be different, how it's all a shame, and on and on; it's all fantasy, all imagination. Memory is imagination. Every memory that we stick to devastates our life.”

ThinkingFeelsShouldHumansDifferentMomentsMightImaginationMemoriesHuman BeingsWorryFantasyOur LivesHappenedPercentEmptyDifficultyShameSticks
Author:Joko Beck
Create image