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Shame Quotes

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Shame Quotes

“Behold great Whitman, whose licentious line Delights the rake, and warms the souls of swine; Whose fever'd fancy shuns the measur'd pace, And copies Ovid's filth without his grace. In his rough brain a genius might have grown, Had he not sought to play the brute alone; But void of shame, he let his wit run wild, And liv'd and wrote as Adam's bestial child.”

ChildrenSoulPlayMightRunningLinesBrainGraceGeniusShameDelightWitFancyRoughCopiesPaceAdamVoidBrutesFeverFilthSwineRakes
Book:The Conservative
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“It has become a common feeling, I believe, as we have watched our heroes falling over the years, that our own small stone of activism, which might not seem to measure up to the rugged boulders of heroism we have so admired, is a paltry offering toward the building of an edifice of hope. Many who believe this choose to withhold their offerings out of shame. This is the tragedy of the world. For we can do nothing substantial toward changing our course on the planet, a destructive one, without rousing ourselves, individual by individual, and bringing our small, imperfect stones to the pile.”

WorldYearsBelieveFeelingsSeemsMightFallCoursesIndividualI BelieveCan DoCommonBuildingPlanetsHeroStonesTragedyShameActivismDestructiveImperfectOfferingHeroismEdificeRuggedBoulders
Book:Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism
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“Plants do everything animals do, but slowly. They migrate, communicate, deceive, stalk their food and, with an ostentation of styles and perfumes to put the animal kingdom to shame, they make love. It's just that catching them in flagrante delicto might require time-lapse photography.”

MightAnimalStylePhotographyShamePlantCommunicateKingdomsDeceivingMaking LovePerfumeCatchingStalkingLapsesAnimal KingdomOstentationMigrateTime Lapse
Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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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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“...how little our side of the industry did to move its business to the more ethical firms and to make a fuss about conflicted or unethical behavior. Had a number of us moved our business, we might have slowed or even stopped the 30-year slide in conflicted, unethical behavior that we have experienced. I, for one, regret the modest nature of our moves. We all could have done more. We have tolerated a pretty nasty decline in standards. Shame on us.”

YearsLittlesDoneMightMovingSidesNumbersRegretIndustryBehaviorStandardsShameMovedFirmEthicalDeclineNastyModestSlidesUnethical
Author:Jeremy Grantham
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“I think if you were to sever the connection between arousal and shame, you might actually come up with something liberating and socially useful. It might be healthier for us, and lead to a situation such as they enjoy in Holland, Denmark, or Spain, where they have pornography all over the place - quite hardcore pornography - but they do not have anywhere the incidence of sex crimes.”

IfsThinkingMightSexEnjoySituationCrimeConnectionsShameCome UpSpainPornographyLiberatingHardcoreHollandDenmarkArousalIncidence
Author:Alan Moore
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“Goose pimples rose all over me, my hair stood on end, my eyes filled with tears of love and gratitude for this greatest of all conquerors of human misery and shame, and my breath came in little gasps. If I had not known that the Leader would have scorned such adulation, I might have fallen to my knees in unashamed worship, but instead I drew myself to attention, raised my arm in the eternal salute of the ancient Roman Legions and repeated the holy words, "Heil Hitler!"”

IfsHumansLittlesEndsMightEyeAttentionKnownLeaderTearsHairArmsGratitudeHolyEternalWorshipBreathsShameFilledMiseryRoseRaisedAncientKneesFallenGeeseConquerorSaluteLegionLove And GratitudeScornedPimplesAdulation
Author:George Lincoln Rockwell
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“Miss Havisham is a glitch in the smooth functioning of the Patriarchy, enforcing awareness of a moment of social disaster and personal shame, something it seems she would want us to forget (but no one would forget). (Maybe an interesting "discussion question" for readers of Complicated Grief might be, "What do Terry Barton and Miss Havisham have in common?"?)”

WantMomentsSeemsMightSocialForgetInterestingCommonGriefAwarenessMissingReaderShameComplicatedDisasterDiscussionSmoothPatriarchyWant UGlitchesHavishamMiss HavishamComplicated Grief
Author:Laura Mullen
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“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
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“During the fifteen minutes that followed, the proud and sensitive girl suffered a shame and pain which she never forgot. To others it might seem a ludicrous or trivial affair, but to her it was a hard experience, for during the twelve years of her life she had been governed by love alone”

YearsHardSeemsMightPainGirlMinutesProudShameAffairSensitiveTwelveFifteenAlone In Love
Book:Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
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“It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with yourrose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame.”

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Author:Oscar Wilde
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“Yet rather than calling the earliest religions, which embraced such an open acceptance of all human sexuality, 'fertility cults,' we might consider the religions of today as strange in that they seem to associate shame and even sin with the very process of conceiving new human life. Perhaps centuries from now scholars and historians will be classifying them as 'sterility cults.”

HumansSeemsMightTodayProcessSinCenturyAcceptanceStrangeCallingShameSexualityHuman LifeHistorianScholarAssociatesCultPaganismPaganFertilityConceivingClassifying
Book:When God Was A Woman
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“O shame to men! Devil with devil damned Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace: and God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enough besides, That day and night for his destruction wait.”

IfsMenWarEnoughMightEarthNightWaitingGraceCreaturesDevilDestructionHatredShameRationalFirmHeavenlyDisagreeStrifeFoeAccordDay And NightEnmityProclaimingParadise Lost Book 2
Book:Paradise Lost (Kastan Edition)
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“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.”

SometimesWholeBigsMightMissingArmsGoodnessShameRuinsAshamedOver ItVillageNutsTabooSymmetryKilling YourselfAsymmetry
Author:Jasper Fforde
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“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”

KnowsMenHeartMightUsedGirlLeftHurtPoorSweetBrokenWalkingShameAngryGood ThingsLeavingLustRanWalking AwaySweet Words
Author:Patrick Rothfuss
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“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
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“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
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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.”

PeopleMenWellsKindStatesMightChristPoorNumbersRichRegardShameDuesRichesDoctrineAbundanceWealthyIndifferentSeverePoor PeopleBishopsCorrectionsRich ManSmall NumbersDiscreet
Author:John Foxe
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“Jesus was the poorest of the poor. Roman Catholicism, which claims to be His church, is the richest of the rich, the wealthiest institution on earth. () How come, that such an institution, ruling in the name of this same itinerant preacher, whose want was such that he had not even a pillow upon which to rest his head, is now so top-heavy with riches that she can rival - indeed, that she can put to shame - the combined might of the most redoubtable financial trusts, of the most potent industrial super-giants, and of the most prosperous global corporation of the world?”

WorldWantMightEarthJesusNamesChurchPoorRichClaimsShameInstitutionsFinancialHeavyRichesCorporationsGiantsCatholicismPreacherRulingRivalsProsperousPillowPoorestRoman Catholic
Author:Avro Manhattan
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“Post-​wounded women know that postures of pain play into limited and outmoded conceptions of womanhood. Their hurt has a new native language spoken in several dialects: sarcastic, jaded, opaque; cool and clever. They guard against those moments when melodrama or self-​pity might split their careful seams of intellect, expose the shame of self-​absorption without self-​awareness.”

KnowsSelfPlayMomentsMightPainLanguageHurtAwarenessShameSelf AwarenessCarefulIntellectCleverPityPostsNativeSarcasticConceptionSplitsWoundedWomanhoodPostureSelf PityAbsorptionJadedDialectMelodramaSelf AbsorptionOpaqueNative Language
Author:Leslie Jamison
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“Before you can kill a demon, you have to be able to say it's name. Names have power. While the word Alzheimer's terrorizes us, it has power over us. When we are prepared to discuss it aloud, we might have power over it. It's thought of as a mental illness and it is a physical illness, affecting the brain. There should be no shame in having it, yet people still don't talk about it”

PeopleShouldStillsMightAbleNamesBrainShamePreparedIllnessMental IllnessDemonOver ItAlzheimerAlzheimer's
Author:Terry Pratchett
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