Guilt quotes
803 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside guilt — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man, you do him an injury; and, if he is overcome, you share his guilt."
"To tell your own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery, and treachery for the most part combined with folly."
"Conditioned Awareness is where we live our lives in guilt over the past and anxiety over the future and never get to experience the present."
"As for the concept of collective guilt, I personally think that it is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons."
"Guilt once harbored in the conscious breast, intimidates the brave, degrades the great."
"FOOVIEW (foo' view) n. The ability of a dog to inflict guilt from any angle in the room while he watches his master eat."
"It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases."
"So the starting point and the basis of their liberal wails of anguish always and always is guilt. Guilt, guilt, guilt."
"Punishment - The justice that the guilty deal out to those that are caught."
"He that is conscious of guilt cannot bear the innocence of others:So they will try to reduce all others to their own level."
"The only shame is to have none."
"Guilt is just as powerful, but its influence is positive, while shame's is destructive. Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement."
"The price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt."
"Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself."
"If you make someone feel guilty about their mistake, then you have not forgiven them. That guilt is itself punishment."
"You will be civilized on the day you can spend a long period doing nothing, learning nothing, and improving nothing, without feeling the slightest amount of guilt."
"Nothing but man of all envenomed things, doth work upon itself, with inborn stings."
"What kind of guilt comes from being true to yourself but not to others?. As we have seen, being true to yourself may at times intrinsically and necessarily be in conflict with being true to others."
"When we look squarely at injustice and get involved, we actually feel less pain, not more, because we overcome the gnawing guilt and despair that festers under our numbness. We clean the wound - our own and others' - and it can finally heal."
"It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape."
