Shame Quotes

• Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Learning, Ignorance

  Benjamin Franklin (2012). “Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.39, Courier Corporation

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• Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.

  George Soros

  Mistake, Failure, Understanding

  George Soros, Byron Wien, Krisztina Koenen (1995). “Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve”, p.11, John Wiley & Sons

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• Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wise, 4th Of July, Anger

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac”, p.36, Nayika Publishing

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• Survival is your strength not your shame.

  T. S. Eliot

  Survival

  139 Copy quote

• If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can't survive.

  Brené Brown

  Empathy, Understanding, Stories

  Brené Brown (2012). “Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead”, p.68, Penguin

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• Guilt says I've done something wrong; ... shame says there is something wrong with me. Guilt says I've made a mistake; ... shame says I am a mistake. Guilt says what did was not good; ... shame says I am no good.

  John Bradshaw

  Mistake, Umpires, Guilt

  John Bradshaw (1988). “Bradshaw On--The Family: A Revolutionary Way of Self-Discovery”, Hci

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• Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It's the fear that we're not good enough.

  Brené Brown

  Powerful, Not Good Enough, Emotion

  23 Copy quote

• Shame produces trauma. Trauma produces paralysis.

  Bell Hooks

  Produce, Trauma, Paralysis

  10 Copy quote

• I regard that man as lost, who has lost his sense of shame.

  Plautus

  Men, Guilt, Lost

  "Bacchides". Play by Plautus,

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• Shame is a soul eating emotion.

  Carl Jung

  Inspirational, Soul, Emotion

  21 Copy quote

• Where shame is, there is also fear.

  John Milton

  16 Copy quote

• It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.

  Horace

  Health, Exercise, Trying

  9 Copy quote

• I feel shame, not for the wrong things I have done, but for the right things that I have failed to do.

  Marcel Duchamp

  Done, Feels, Wrong Things

  16 Copy quote
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  There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

  Howard Zinn

  Peace, War, Patriotic

  Howard Zinn (1993). “Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian”, p.118, South End Press

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• Dogs have boundless enthusiasm but no sense of shame. I should have a dog as a life coach.

  Moby

  Dog, Should Have, Enthusiasm

  26 Copy quote

• Shame is the lie someone told you about yourself.

  Anais Nin

  Lying, About Yourself

  "Why Men Fall Out of Love : The Secrets They Don't Tell" by Michael French, (p. 142), 2005.

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• The only shame is to have none.

  Blaise Pascal

  Guilt

  Blaise Pascal (2010). “Thoughts, Letters and Minor Works”, p.74, Cosimo, Inc.

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• It is a matter of shame that in the morning the birds should be awake earlier than you.

  Abu Bakr

  Morning, Bird, Matter

  138 Copy quote

• Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger. Forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart.

  Jim Henson

  Anger, Heart, Sadness

  153 Copy quote

• I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Evil, Guilt

  Jonathan Swift (1850). “The Works of Jonathan Swift: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ; with a Memoir of the Author”, p.307

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• What a man is ashamed of is always at bottom himself; and he is ashamed of himself at bottom always for being afraid.

  Robin G. Collingwood

  Men, Bottom, Being Afraid

  9 Copy quote

• If we have anything kind to say, any tender sentiment to express, we feel a sense of shame.

  Ugo Betti

  Guilt, Sentimental, Kind

  Ugo Betti (1964). “Three plays on justice: Landslide. Struggle till dawn. The fugitive”

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• 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

  Real, Sin, Wells

  "Company Manners: A Cultural Inquiry into American Life". Book by Louis Kronenberger, p. 76, 1954.

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• Shame is an unhappy emotion invented by pietists in order to exploit the human race.

  Blake Edwards

  Race, Order, Unhappy

  12 Copy quote

• The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Anger, Reading

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 19 (1891)

  66 Copy quote

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