There are moments when have emotions of guilt and shame, they are so strong, so deep, they can creep in quietly. So In this post, I’m sharing with you 110 quotes about guilt and shame to help you let go and move forward with strength and understanding.
We all experience times when we feel we’ve fallen short or made mistakes. While these feelings can be heavy, they carry an important message — they remind us how much we care about doing the right thing. It’s crucial to remember, however, that guilt and shame don’t define us. Instead, they can be stepping stones toward personal growth, self-forgiveness, and deeper understanding.
These quotes remind us that we’re not alone in these experiences. They offer gentle perspectives, helping us shift from a place of self-criticism to self-compassion.
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Here is the List of 110 Quotes About Guilt and Shame
1. “The problem with guilt is that it doesn’t change the past.” — Amanda Hocking
2. “I believe that as often as I transgress, God is more ready to forgive me than I am ready to offend.” — Charles Spurgeon
3. “Guilt is always hungry, don’t let it consume you.” — Terri Guillemets
4. “Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action.” — Audre Lorde
5. “Guilt is society’s voice speaking in your head.” — Naval Ravikant
6. “Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement.” — Brené Brown
7. “You can cry, ain’t no shame in it.” — Will Smith
8. “Today, let’s set our minds and hearts on feeling more thankful for what we are than guilty for what we’re not. Let’s cut the threads of guilt with grace.” — Lysa TerKeurst
9. “The only shame is to have none.” — Blaise Pascal
10. “Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.” — Erma Bombeck
11. “Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.” — Benjamin Franklin
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12. “Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.” — Rumi
13. “Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.” — Benjamin Franklin
14. “Shame is a fitter and generally a more effectual punishment for a child than beating.” — Samuel Richardson
15. “Shame is the lie someone told you about yourself.” — Anaïs Nin
16. “Shame is an attachment to negative self-perception that has been fostered by the perceptions and opinions of others. Shame is a wasted sensibility.” — Devon St. Claire
17. “It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.” — Horace
18. “Those events that once made me feel ashamed and disgraced now allow me to share with others how to become a useful member of the human race.” — Bill Wilson
19. “Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough.” — Brené Brown
20. “Forgive yourself; you are not perfect. Show yourself grace; you are still learning. Show yourself patience; you are on a journey.” — Shannon Yvette Tanner
21. “I was beautiful. Now, because I am old, I take no shame in so saying.” — Lillie Langtry
22. “Guilt is a gift from Allah warning you that what you are doing is violating your soul.” — Nouman Ali Khan
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23. “Healthy shame is the psychological foundation of humility. It is the source of spirituality.” — John Bradshaw
24. “The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.” — Ayn Rand
25. “I have little shame, no dignity – all in the name of a better cause.” — A. J. Jacobs
26. “Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt.” — Plautus
27. “People are embracing the thing that made them different growing up instead of letting that thing elicit shame.” — Constance Wu
28. “Tell the truth and shame the devil.” — Francois Rabelais
29. “Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.” — Coco Chanel
30. “There’s no shame in enjoying a quiet life. And that’s been the realization of the past few years for me.” — Daniel Radcliffe
31. “Lack of forgiveness causes almost all of our self-sabotaging behavior.” —Mark Victor Hansen
32. “With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.” — Zig Ziglar
33. “I come from a violent background. So I became hard. I realized that I had made myself that way to deal with a feeling of abandonment and shame.” — Mickey Rourke
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34. “It happened. It was awful. You aren’t perfect. That’s all there is. Don’t confuse your grief with guilt.” — Veronica Roth
35. “I don’t have no shame.” — Tee Grizzley
36. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” — Lewis B. Smedes
37. “Guilt is the price we pay willingly for doing what we are going to do anyway.” — Isabelle Holland
38. “One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.” — Marquis de Sade
39. “Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” — J.K. Rowling
40. “No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” — Alan Watts
41. “But to have a name among the weak and the wicked is shame and reproach.” — Samuel Adams
42. “Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.” — William Cowper
43. “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha
44. “I used to look in the mirror and feel shame, I look in the mirror now and I absolutely love myself.” — Drew Barrymore
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45. “Guilt is the heart’s way of letting us know that it’s time to take action.” — Joan Borysenko
46. “A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” — Christopher K. Germer
47. “I’m not unfamiliar with frustration, anger, shame, helplessness and a load of other emotions that make up our psycho-soup.” — Terry O’Quinn
48. “My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.” — Anna Sewell
49. “I’ve worn a dress at my wedding. I’ve worn 6-inch Louboutins. I’ve got no fear and no shame.” — A. J. McLean
50. “Shame is the most socially isolating emotion.” — Brené Brown
51. “Suits are looked at more now as a business thing which is kind of a shame.” — Daniel Craig
52. “Shame says that because I am flawed I am unacceptable. Guilt says I did something bad.” — Brene Brown
53. “Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle; the other two are shame and stigma.” — Germaine Greer
54. “Guilt is anger directed at ourselves – at what we did or did not do.” — Peter McWilliams
55. “Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.” — Michel de Montaigne
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56. “Empathy’s the antidote to shame. The two most powerful words when we’re in struggle: me too.” — Brené Brown
57. “It’s a shame to call somebody a ‘diva’ simply because they work harder than everybody else.” — Jennifer Lopez
58. “Guilt is a useless feeling. It’s never enough to make you change direction—only enough to make you useless.” — Daniel Nayeri
59. “I don’t believe in guilt; I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person. And don’t judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free.” — Angelina Jolie
60. “To make godly decisions we have to surrender our egos and all the falsity and shame that goes with it.” — James McGreevey
61. “Guilt hinders our productivity, steals our joy, interrupts our peace, harms our relationships, and worst of all, makes us self-focused.” — Mary Whelchel
62. “Guilt is a destructive and ultimately pointless emotion.” — Lynn Crilly
63. “Maybe it was shame. I don’t know. But he never wanted anything to do with me. That rejection was terribly hurtful and it went on for years.” — Carol Vorderman
64. “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” — Henry Ford
65. “A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.” — Albert Camus
66. “But they’re hurt because, for some reason, people feel shame about themselves or embarrassed because they are short or skinny or fat or whatever.” — Jose Altuve
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67. “We are not built for guilt, and it damages our souls and personalities—even our health.” — Joyce Meyer
68. “Guilt is the very nerve of sorrow.” — Horace Bushnell
69. “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” — Bernice Johnson Reagon
70. “I know that life is full of lessons to be learned, and my children will have to learn their own, but I hope I have broken the cycle of shame and fear that plagued my childhood.” — Jimmy Barnes
71. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou
72. “True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself.” — R.D. Laing
73. “Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!” — William Shakespeare
74. “Do you have patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?” — Lao Tzu
75. “A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.” — Mark Twain
76. “The more you fight against and feel shame for spending time in your Comfort Zone, the more you are in danger of compromising trust with yourself.” — Kristen Butler
77. “Shame is a particularly acute risk for mental illness.” — Nicola Gates
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78. “Love yourself, accept yourself, forgive yourself and be good to yourself, because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.” — Leo Buscaglia
79. “Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action.” — Audre Lorde
80. “Guilt is a useless feeling. It’s never enough to make you change direction–only enough to make you useless.” — Daniel Nayeri
81. “Shame is an ornament of the young; a disgrace of the old.” — Aristotle
82. “We feel guilt when we no longer want to associate with old friends and colleagues who haven’t changed.” — Naval Ravikant
83. “Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.” — Edmund Burke
84. “Shame should be reserved for the things we choose to do, not the circumstances that life puts on us.” — Ann Patchett
85. “You cannot let guilt take the place of your dreams.” — Lisa Wingate
86. “Shame should be reserved for the things we choose to do, not the circumstances that life puts on us.” — Ann Patchett
87. “Guilt is the worst enemy of true happiness and self-esteem. It is indeed the worst thing you can ever do to your soul.” — Pamela Baron Waldbauer
88. “The way out of shame is to own it, and go on being your best, showing up rather than hiding because of it. Don’t let shame own you and keep you small.” — Debra Campbell
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89. “Guilt, of course, is feeling bad about one’s actions, but shame is feeling bad about oneself.” — Greg Boyle
90. “When thinking about life, remember this: no amount of guilt can solve the past, and no amount of anxiety can change the future.” — Unknown
91. “As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.” — Pericles
92. “No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.” — Stefan Zweig
93. “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” — Robert Morely
94. “Mistakes are part of life. Everyone makes them. Everyone regrets them. But some learn from them, and some end up making them again. It’s up to you to decide if you’ll use your mistake to your advantage.” — Meredith Sapp
95. “Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
96. “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
97. “Shame is a soul-eating emotion.” — Carl Jung
98. “The still waters of a lake reflect the beauty around it. When the mind is still, the beauty of the self is reflected.” — Vanda Scaravelli
99. “Dogs have boundless enthusiasm but no sense of shame. I should have a dog as a life coach.” — Moby
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100. “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
101. “True redemption is…when guilt leads to good.” — Khaled Hosseini
102. “Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows.” — Brené Brow
103. “You cannot really shame a man who sincerely does not care what others think of him.” — Mokokoma Mokhonoana
104. “An exciting and inspiring future awaits you beyond the noise in your mind, beyond the guilt, doubt, fear, shame, insecurity, and heaviness of the past you carry around.” — Debbie Ford
105. “Self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.” — Billy Graham
106. “Guilt is a rope that wears thin.” — Ayn Rand
107. “Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.” — Brené Brown
108. “Shame is an unhappy emotion invented by pietists in order to exploit the human race.” — Blake Edwards
109. “Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they’re big, flashing signs that something needs to change.” — Gretchen Rubin
110. “No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.” — Charles Dickens
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Final Thoughts
I hope these quotes about guilt and shame, inspire you to embrace self-forgiveness and see every challenge as an opportunity to become stronger.
Amazing quotes here, and I claim no credit for any of them personally. They are all credited to far better thinkers than myself. I’ve done my best to properly attribute quotes to their original sources.
Now it’s your turn. If we missed any quotes, please share them with us in the comments section below, and we’ll gladly add them to the list.
I pray that these quotes will help you overcome your feelings of guilt and shame once and for all.
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