Embarrassment Quotes

• Have you ever noticed how parents can go from the most wonderful people in the world to totally embarrassing in three seconds?

  Rick Riordan

  Relationship, People, Parent

  Rick Riordan (2010). “The Kane Chronicles, The, Book One: Red Pyramid”, Hyperion

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• The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate.

  Douglas Engelbart

  Funny, Life, Motivational

  "Computerworld". Book by Douglas Engelbart, p.42, June 22, 1992.

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• But I learned that there's a certain character that can be built from embarrassing yourself endlessly. If you can sit happy with embarrassment, there's not much else that can really get to ya.

  Christian Bale

  Character, Embarrassing, Certain

  "Christian Bale May Kill Someone Yet". Interview with John H. Richardson, www.esquire.com. November 15, 2010.

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• Confidence is the willingness to be as ridiculous, luminous, intelligent, and kind as you really are, without embarrassment.

  Susan Piver

  Confidence, Being Yourself, Buddhist

  "What is True Confidence?" by Susan Piver, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 19, 2010.

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• Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

  Brian Tracy

  Motivational, Change, Single

  FaceBook post by Brian Tracy from Dec 28, 2013

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• Today self-consciousness no longer means anything but reflection on the ego as embarrassment, as realization of impotence: knowing that one is nothing.

  Theodor Adorno

  Mean, Reflection, Self

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.50, Verso

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• Some people play very, very well just so they won't get embarrassed.

  Lynn Swann

  Play, People, Embarrassed

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• The secret of how to live without resentment or embarrassment in a world in which I was different from everyone else. was to be indifferent to that difference.

  Al Capp

  Life, Differences, Secret

  Al Capp (1991). “My Well-balanced Life on a Wooden Leg: Memoirs”, Daniel & Daniel Pub

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• Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.

  Helen Keller

  Friendship, Sweet, Book

  "The Story of My Life" by Helen Keller, (Ch. 21), 1903.

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• When an acquaintance goes by I often step back from my window, not so much to spare him the effort of acknowledging me as to spare myself the embarrassment of seeing that he has not done so.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Effort, Done, Steps

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook F 155, 1799.

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• So popular is the naval service the only embarrassment is that men volunteer so rapidly we have to work overtime to give them hardy, adequate housing and proper training.

  Josephus Daniels

  Men, Volunteer, Giving

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• Sotomayor's vainglorious lecture bromide about herself as 'a wise Latina' trumping white men is a vulgar embarrassment - a vestige of the bad old days of male-bashing feminism.

  Camille Paglia

  Wise, Men, White Man

  "Obama’s Hit — and Big Miss". Salon Column, www.salon.com. June 10, 2009.

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• But that intimacy of mutual embarrassment, in which each feels that the other is feeling something, having once existed, its effect is not to be done away with.

  George Eliot

  Heartbreak, Judging, Feelings

  George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.180, Penguin

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• Humility is the embarrassment you feel when you tell people how wonderful you are.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Humility, People, Wonderful

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• Embarrassment isn't a just cause of action.

  Jodi Picoult

  Causes, Action

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “Handle with Care: A Novel”, p.55, Simon and Schuster

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• I used to be a discipline problem, which caused me embarrassment until I realized that being a discipline problem in a racist society is sometimes an honor.

  Ishmael Reed

  Discipline, Honor, Racist

  Ishmael Reed (1978). “Shrovetide in old New Orleans”, Doubleday Books

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• I'm not sure that I am able to feel embarrassment.

  Beth Ditto

  Able, Not Sure, Feels

  "Q&A: Beth Ditto". Interview with Rosanna Greenstreet, www.theguardian.com. July 6, 2012.

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• All parents are an embarrassment to their kids. Often grandparents are the relief. Kids don't have to resist you.

  Anne Lamott

  Kids, Grandparent, Relief

  "Anne Lamott's directions for grandparents: 'Some Assembly Required'". Interview with Katia Hetter, www.cnn.com. April 6, 2012.

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• The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

  Julian Barnes

  Land, Breakfast, Breakfast Being Important

  Flaubert's Parrot (1984) ch. 7

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• Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow's embarrassment?

  Tom Cruise

  Feelings, Glimpse, Tomorrow

  "Fictional character: Jerry Maguire". "Jerry Maguire", www.imdb.com. 1996.

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• The band broke up because I couldn't bear Rotten anymore because he was an embarrassment with his silly hats and his, like, shabby, dirty, nasty looking appearance.

  Sid Vicious

  Dirty, Silly, Naughty

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• Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.

  Tony Benn

  Inspirational, Photography, Things In Life

  "99 Things to Do between Here and Heaven" by Kathleen Long Bostrom, Peter Graystone, (p. 65), June 2, 2009.

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• To my embarrassment I was born in bed with a lady.

  Wilson Mizner

  Bed, Born

  Evanell K. Powell Brant, Addison Mizner, Wilson Mizner (1979*). “Debauched Proverbs and Other Miznerisms of Addison Mizner and Wilson Mizner”

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• The reason to retire is to try to avoid embarrassment; you ought to do it before people are dropping big hints. You want to be the first to come up with the idea. You don't want to wait until you trip and fall off the stage.

  Garrison Keillor

  Fall, Ideas, People

  "Keillor To Retire From Prairie Home In 2013" by wenn.com, March 18, 2011.

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• Asteroids have us in our sight. The dinosaurs didn't have a space program, so they're not here to talk about this problem. We are, and we have the power to do something about it. I don't want to be the embarrassment of the galaxy, to have had the power to deflect an asteroid, and then not, and end up going extinct.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Sight, Space, Dinosaurs

  "'Space Chronicles': Why Exploring Space Still Matters". Interview with David Greene, www.npr.org. February 27, 2012.

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