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The guilty think all talk is of themselves.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales
Guilt is universal.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Forward to Sweet Bird of Youth
Innocence is the weakest defense. Innocence has a single voice that can only say over and over again, "I didn't do it." Guilt has a thousand voices, all of them lies.
LEONARD F. PELTIER, Prison Writings
No acquisitions of guilt can compensate the loss of that solid inward comfort of mind, which is the sure companion of innocence and virtue; nor can in the least balance the evil of that horror and anxiety which, in their room, guilt introduces into our bosoms.
HENRY FIELDING, Tom Jones
Shame is closely related to guilt, but there is a key qualitative difference. No audience is needed for feelings of guilt, no one else need know, for the guilty person is his own judge. Not so for shame. The humiliation of shame requires disapproval or ridicule by others. If no one ever learns of a misdeed there will be no shame, but there still might be guilt. Of course, there may be both. The distinction between shame and guilt is very important, since these two emotions may tear a person in opposite directions. The wish to relieve guilt may motivate a confession, but the wish to avoid the humiliation of shame may prevent it.
The difference between guilt and shame is very clear—in theory. We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are.
LEWIS B. SMEDES, Shame and Grace
He who helps the guilty, shares the crime.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS, Sententiae
Guilt is always present to the mind (of the guilty).
Guilt is a rope that wears thin.
- We each begin in innocence.
- We all become guilty.
LEONARD F. PELTIER, Prison Writings
No punishment is so terrible as prosperous guilt.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING, Thoughts
Grief and guilt. A powerful combination. Guilt like a liquid, a thin liquor, seeping everywhere, informing everything, saturating the whole--corrosive, like seawater, scented with the rich stench of ordure and corruption, and carrying with it hard, abrasive shards of grief.
SIMON MAWER, The Gospel of Judas
None seem to bear the imputation of supposed guilt with greater intolerance than such as are, on other occasions, obviously culpable of vice or crime.
NORMAN MACDONALD, Maxims and Moral Reflections
I am a person who feels guilty for crimes I have not committed, or have not committed in years. The police search the train station for a serial rapist and I cover my face with a newspaper, wondering if maybe I did it in my sleep. The last thing I stole was an eight-track tape, but to this day I'm unable to enter a store without feeling like a shoplifter. It's all the anxiety with none of the free stuff.
DAVID SEDARIS, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Guilt is oftentimes the strongest witness against itself.
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