quotations about shame
Only man can blush.
No other creature knows of shame.
Why have we wandered so far away
From simple honesty?
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Song of the Soul"
Shame need not crouch
In such an earth as ours
Stand--stand erect;
The universe is yours.
EMILY DICKINSON
"Not with a Club, the Heart is broken"
You made me cry
When you said goodbye
Isn't that a shame
My tears fell like rain
Isn't that a shame
You're the one to blame
JOHN LENNON
"Ain't That a Shame"
Now there's a lifestyle
With painted lips
Now there's a lifestyle
Everybody wants it
But it don't exist
And I said shame...
EURYTHMICS
"Shame"
Nothing is truly infamous, but what is wicked; and therefore, shame can never disturb an innocent and virtuous mind.
WILLIAM SHERLOCK
A Practical Discourse Concerning a Future Judgment
Shame is like a lock, it shuts away what must be shut away, and is one of the most important mechanisms of social life.
KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD
Autumn
Shame regulates differences, creates secrets, builds up a charge. The counterforce and antithesis of shame is desire, which with all its being seeks to eliminate differences, to do away with secrets, release tensions.
KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD
Autumn
I count him lost, who is lost to shame.
PLAUTUS
Bacchides
One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame we have killed off so much real shame as well.
LOUIS KRONENBERGER
Company Manners
Love taught him shame, and shame, with love at strife,
Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.
JOHN DRYDEN
Cymon and Iphigenia
Shame is like the weaver's thread; if it breaks in the net, it is wholly imperfect.
BULWER
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is the guilt, not the scaffold, which constitutes the shame.
PIERRE CORNEILLE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Where there is no shame, there is no honor.
MARTIN OPITZ
attributed, Day's Collacon
Shame is a great concealer of tears.
ALTAHIYA
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is better to be buried than to live in shame.
PANTHEA
attributed, Day's Collacon
Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.
SENECA
attributed, Day's Collacon
Shame is a part of original sin.
JOHN HUMPHREY NOYES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Where there is shame there is virtue.
JOHANN RIST
attributed, Day's Collacon
Shame is an attachment to negative self-perception that has been fostered by the perceptions and opinions of others. Shame is a wasted sensibility.
DEVON ST. CLAIRE
"Shame and Negative Self Perception", Empire State News, August 31, 2017
I drew it over my skin like a violins bow, No one would ever hear the song of my shame.
JODI PICOULT
Handle with Care