875 Quotes About Shame

It may be somewhat paradoxical to refer to shame as a 'feeling,' for while shame is initially painful, constant shaming leads to a deadening of feeling. Shame, like cold, is, in essence, the absence of warmth. And when it reaches overwhelming intensity, shame is experienced, like cold, as a feeling of numbness and deadness. [In Dante's Inferno] the lowest circle of hell was a region not of flames, but of ice---absolute coldness.

عشت طول عمري جباناً أخاف الموت لأنه مؤلم.. ولكن الموت اليؤلم.. الموت لا يؤلم يا إخوتي و إنما العار هو الذي يؤلم

When you're hounded by the shame of the past, you can turn into a pretty miserable person who is always trying to measure up and please others.

Nu, eu nu cred în vinovăția colectivă. E o rușine pentru cei amestecați.

Non mi piacciono i matrimoni combinati. Ci sono sbagli dei quali non bisognerebbe mai poter incolpare i propri poveri genitori.

Shame was one of those things that had to be excised like a cancer, but it was a hard thing to remove when it was wrapped around your heart.

She that in life and love refuses me, In death and shame my partner she shall be.

Shame lurks in the pockets of the mind (or spirit), like lint. No matter how brave a face you put on things – and believe me, I did – you always have to face yourself in the end.

Perhaps this is why an institution is unlikely to feel or admit to shame; it may be unable to countenance the possibility that at root it is not what it purports, even to itself, to be. (quoted by Michael Barnett in Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda)