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Shame Quotes

Browse 2566 quotes about Shame.

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Shame Quotes

“What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow men's existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad
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“Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame.”

IfsMenGivingMomentsJoyAbilityMoneyFoolAchievementStandardsDeserveShameGreedInvestingVicesStupidityFraudDespiseRemindersScornPenniesTributeReproachCateringPurchasers
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“It is in the name of Moses that Bellarmin thunderstrikes Galileo; and this great vulgarizer of the great seeker Copernicus, Galileo, the old man of truth, the magian of the heavens, was reduced to repeating on his knees word for word after the inquisitor this formula of shame: "Corde sincera et fide non ficta abjuro maledico et detestor supradictos errores et hereses." Falsehood put an ass's hood on science.”

MenScienceNamesHeavenAccountsShameAssKneesOld ManFormulasFalsehoodSeekersMosesHoodCopernicus
Author:Victor Hugo
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“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier's sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”

MenFeelsMadeWarActionFightingSocialAttitudeMilitaryBrokenWalkingResponsibleShameAddGuiltKillingSoldierBombsCiviliansTabooVietnam WarProverbialTime Bomb
Author:Philip Caputo
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“Although wrongs have been done to me, I live in hopes. I have not got two hearts....Now we are together again to make peace. My shame is as big as the earth, although I will do what my friends have advised me to do. I once thought that I was the only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man, but since they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses and everything else, it is hard for me to believe the white men any more.”

MenBelieveHeartHas BeensTwoHardDoneBigsEarthTogetherWhiteMy FriendsHorseShameNativeNative AmericanWhite ManMaking PeaceTogether AgainLodgesTwo Hearts
Author:Black Kettle
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“The fancies that take their monstrous birth from the spinelessness and boredom of usurped wealth bring in their wake every defect ... and though rich men's crimes escape the law, protected as they are by the cowardice of governments and people, Nature, more real than society, sets her anarchic example by abandoning the wretched time servers of Capital to the shame and madness of the worst aberrations.”

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Author:Jean Lorrain
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“The being who, for most men, is the source of the most lively, and even, be it said, to the shame of philosophical delights, the most lasting joys; the being towards or for whom all their efforts tend for whom and by whom fortunes are made and lost; for whom, but especially by whom, artists and poets compose their most delicate jewels; from whom flow the most enervating pleasures and the most enriching sufferings - woman, in a word, is not, for the artist in general... only the female of the human species. She is rather a divinity, a star.”

MenHumansMadeSaidJoyArtistSufferingLostStarsWomenPleasureEffortPoetSourceFemaleFlowPhilosophicalShameFortuneSpeciesDelightDivinityLastingDelicateJewelsLivelyHuman SpeciesEnriching
Author:Charles Baudelaire
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“The simple person lives the way he breathes, with no more effort or glory, with no more affectation and without shame Simplicity is freedom, buoyancy, transparency. As simple as the air, as free as the air The simple person does not take himself too seriously or too tragicallyHe has nothing to prove, since he has no appearances to keep up, and nothing to seek, since everything is before him. What is more simple than simplicity? What is lighter? It is the virtue of wise men and the wisdom of saints.”

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Author:Andre Comte-Sponville
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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.”

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Author:Zora Neale Hurston
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“When we speak to drunkards, worldlings, or any ignorant, unconverted men, we disgrace them as in that condition to the utmost, and lay it on as plainly as we can speak, and tell them of their sin, and shame, and misery: and we expect, not only that they should bear all patiently, but take all thankfully, and we have good reasons for all this; and most that I deal with do take it patiently... But if we speak to a godly minister against his errors or any sin... if it be not more an applause than a reprehension, they take it as an injury almost insufferable.”

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Author:Richard Baxter
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“Ireland, as distinct from her people, is nothing to me; and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for "Ireland," and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, shame and degradation wrought upon the people of Ireland-yea, wrought by Irishmen upon Irish men and women, without burning to end it, is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements he is pleased to call Ireland.”

PeopleMenHeartEndsMatterSufferingOpinionStreetsHe ManElementsMen And WomenShameEnthusiasmWitnessBurningCombinationLiarsChemicalsFraudIrelandDegradationIrishmen
Book:Labour in Irish history ; The re-conquest of Ireland ; Socialism and nationalism
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“With his continual doctrine [Bishop Hooper] adjoined due and discreet correction, not so much severe to any as to them which for abundance of riches and wealthy state thought they might do what they listed. And doubtless he spared no kind of people, but was indifferent to all men, as well rich as poor, to the great shame of no small number of men nowadays. Whereas many we see so addicted to the pleasing of great and rich men, that in the meantime they have no regard to the meaner sort of poor people, whom Christ hath bought as dearly as the other.”

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Author:John Foxe
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“The history of medicine proves that in so far as man seeks to know himself and face his whole nature, he has become free from bewildered fear, despondent shame, or arrant hypocrisy. As long as sex is dealt with in the current confusion of ignorance and sophistication, denial and indulgence, suppression and stimulation, punishment and exploitation, secrecy and display, it will be associated with a duplicity and indecency that lead neither to intellectual honesty nor human dignity.”

KnowsMenHumansLongWholeFacesSexHonestyIgnoranceProveIntellectualDignityShameMedicineCurrentsSexualityPunishmentConfusionDenialHypocrisyDisplayExploitationSecrecyIndulgenceHuman DignitySuppressionSophisticationStimulationBewilderedDuplicityDespondentIntellectual HonestyHistory Of Medicine
Author:Alfred Kinsey
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“And what shall he suffer who slays him who of all men, as they say, is his own best friend? I mean the suicide, who deprives himself by violence of his appointed share of life. Not because the law of the state requires him. Nor yet under the compulsion of some painful and inevitable misfortune which has come upon him. Nor because he has had to suffer from irremediable and intolerable shame, but who from sloth or want of manliness imposes upon himself an unjust penalty.”

MenWantMeanStatesLawSufferingViolenceShareShameSuicidePainfulInevitableMisfortunesPenaltiesUnjustSuicidalCompulsionSlothManliness
Book:The Complete Plato
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“I've borne the shame of mother while you bought her off with a present and a treat here and there. God knows how hard I tried to civilize her so as not to have to blush with shame when I take her anywhere. I dressed her in the most stylish Paris models, but Delancey Street sticks out from every inch of her. Whenever she opens her mouth, I'm done for. You fellows had your chance to rise in the world because a man is free to go up as high as he can reach up to; but I, with all my style and pep, can't get a man my equal because a girl is always judged by her mother.”

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Book:Hungry Hearts: Stories of the Jewish-American Immigrant Experience
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“No one, it has been said, will ever look at the Moon in the same way again. More significantly can one say that no one will ever look at the earth in the same way. Man had to free himself from earth to perceive both its diminutive place in a solar system and its inestimable value as a life -fostering planet. As earthmen, we may have taken another step into adulthood. We can see our planet earth with detachment, with tenderness, with some shame and pity, but at last also with love.”

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Author:Anne Morrow Lindbergh
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“My feelings about men are the result of my experience. I have little sympathy for them. Like a Jew just released from Dachau, I watch the handsome young Nazi soldier fall writhing to the ground with a bullet in his stomach and I look briefly and walk on. I don’t even need to shrug. I simply don’t care. What he was, as a person, I mean, what his shames and yearnings were, simply don’t matter.”

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Book:The Women's Room
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“The city of Copenhagen is a climate crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame. World leaders had a once in a generation chance to change the world for good, to avert catastrophic climate change. In the end they produced a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through.”

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Author:Kumi Naidoo
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“You can’t lose with the stuff I use!”; “Some may say money is the root of all evil, but being in poverty is a damn shame!”; “The best thing you can do for the poor is not be one of them”; “God doesn’t want you to have your pie-in-the-sky, by and by, when you die. He wants you to have it now with a cherry on top!”; and “If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in. He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper!”

IfsThinkingMenWantMayUseDiesEvilHeavenStuffDifficultCan DoLosesPoorPovertyRichSkyTerribleRootsShameBest ThingsDamnPieRich ManPoor ManCherriesBribeGatekeepersMoney Is The Root Of All Evil
Author:Reverend Ike
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“A man who has been born into the house of a warrior and yet places no loyalty in his heart and thinks only of the fortune of his position will be flattering on the surface and construct schemes in his heart, will forsake righteousness and not reflect on his shame, and will stain the warrior's name of his household to later generations. This is truly regrettable.”

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Author:Torii Mototada
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“There's nothing in this world can make me joy: Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet world's taste That it yields nought but shame and bitterness.”

MenWorldLifeLife IsJoyThis WorldSweetTasteEarsShameTalesBitterDullYieldBitternessSpoilTediousDrowsy
Book:The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: Twelfth-night. Winter's tale. Macbeth. King John
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“The age is dull and mean. Men creep, Not walk; with blood too pale and tame To pay the debt they owe to shame; Buy cheap, sell dear; eat. drink, and sleep down-pillowed, deaf to moaning want; Pay tithes for soul-insurance; keep Six days to Mammon, one to Cant”

MenWantMeanSoulAgeSleepWalksPayBloodDrinkSixShameSellsDearDebtDullPaleDeafCantCreepsTitheMoaningMean Man
Book:The Works of Whittier, Volume III (of VII) Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform
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“Ardent, intelligent, sweet, sensitive, cultivated, erudite. These are the adjectives of praise in an androgynous world. Those who consider them epithets of shame or folly ought not to be trusted with leadership, for they will be men hot for power and revenge, certain of right and wrong.”

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Book:Toward a recognition of androgyny
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