Shame Quotes

Shame is the demon that keeps many of us trapped in our pain, healing comes when we gain the courage to confront our demon(s).

~ J'son M. Lee

This was not guilt: guilt is what you feel when you have done something wrong. What I felt was shame: I was what was wrong.

~ Atul Gawande

Shame was an emotion he had abandoned years earlier. Addicts know no shame. You disgrace yourself so many times you become immune to it.

~ John Grisham

Often self-love is replaced with self- loathing, compounded by beating ourselves up. We become experts at putting ourselves down, judging ourselves, and finding fault. This creates deep shame that says “I am a mistake” instead of saying “I made a mistake.

~ David W. Earle

This woman’s size protected herfrom the hurts of the worldbut it also imprisoned her soul. As the merry-go-round revolved, she ate another French fry,as a silent scream frozen on her face.

~ David W. Earle

Her screams are heard across generations who dared not scream and died without joy,in silence and isolation.

~ David W. Earle

End-stage addiction is mostly about waiting for the police, or someone, to come and bury you in your shame.

~ David Carr

Do not be ashamed of help.

~ Marcus Aurelius

There are so many other fun ways to dishonor the family name that buying girls’ underwear shouldn’t be one of them.

~ Rin Chupeco

When you find yourself looking ridiculous, reasoning isn't worth a damn.

~ Osamu Dazai

To show his nervousness was not shameful, only to admit it.

~ Ernest Hemingway

The pain and shame felt are unknown to those with planned vacations. They know not of the tsunami that rescinded the homes, goals, and hopes of its victims—swallowed by the sea of greed.

~ John-Talmage Mathis

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.

~ Charles Dickens

We are so used to our own history, we do not see it as remarkable or out of the ordinary, whereas others might see it as horrendous. Further, we tend to minimize that which we feel shameful about.

~ Patrick J. Carnes

Without shame, without conscience.

~ Chris Galford

Like all men who look this good, Frank has no interest in women.

~ Dennis Sharpe

Gain fame, and the paparazzi or media waits and watches for them to slip, just to shame their name.

~ Anthony Liccione

Parts of you are phobic of anger and generally terrified and ashamed of angry dissociative parts. There is often tremendous conflict between anger-avoidant and anger-fixated parts of an individual. Thus, an internal and perpetual cycle of rage-shame-fear creates inner chaos and pain.

~ Suzette Boon

I felt ashamed.But of what? Psyche, they hadn't stripped you naked or anything?No, no, Maia. Ashamed of looking like a mortal -- of being a mortal.But how could you help that?Don't you think the things people are most ashamed of are things they can't help?

~ C.s. Lewis

Shame is a soul eating emotion.

~ C.g. Jung

Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.

~ Brené Brown

Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.

~ Brené Brown

I am ashamed of anyone who has eyes and still can't see.

~ Kathryn Lasky

If people try to judge you or shame you for doing safe, consensual things that make you happy, I can guarantee you they're bad people.

~ Tucker Max

Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.

~ Brené Brown

Oh! that look of love! continued he, between his teeth, as he bolted himself into his own private room. And that cursed lie; which showed some terrible shame in the background, to be kept from the light in which I thought she lived perpetually! Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Mother, how you have tortured me! Oh! Margaret, could you not have loved me? I am but uncouth and hard, but I would never have led you into any falsehood for me.

~ Elizabeth Gaskell

Shame is always easier to handle if you have someone to share it with.

~ Craig Thompson

Shame isn't a quiet grey cloud, shame is a drowning man who claws his way on top of you, scratching and tearing your skin, pushing you under the surface.

~ Kirsty Eagar

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on both of us.

~ Stephen King

I come home that morning, after I been fired, and stood outside my house with my new work shoes on. The shoes my mama paid a month's worth a light bill for. I guess that's when I understood what shame was and the color of it too. Shame ain't black, like dirt, like I always thought it was. Shame be the color of a new white uniform your mother ironed all night to pay for, white without a smudge or a speck a work-dirt on it.

~ Kathryn Stockett

Once they know they've got a hold of your shame, they can shake it out and hold it up for the all world to see. And you become less than it. You become something disgusting.

~ Kirsty Eagar

To be shame-bound means that whenever you feel any feeling, need or drive, you immediately feel ashamed. The dynamic core of your human life is grounded in your feelings, needs and drives. When these are bound by shame, you are shamed to the core.

~ John Bradshaw

When we sat down on the couch again, you curled up against my side, like you used to when you were a tod

~ Jodi Picoult

I will put up with any mockery rather than pretend that I am satisfied when I am hungry.

~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The most paradoxical aspect of neurotic shame is that it is the core motivator of the superachieved and the underachieved, the star and the scapegoat, the righteous and the wretched, the powerful and the pathetic.

~ John Bradshaw

I drew it over my skin like a violins bow, No one would ever hear the song of my shame.

~ Jodi Picoult

Our words had to be circumspect. We could not write anything too negative about our circumstances. This was tricky, since the very form of a married woman's letter needed to include the usual complaints -- that we were pathetic, powerless, worked to the bone, homesick, and sad. We were supposed to speak directly about our feelings without appearing ungrateful, no-account, or unfilial.

~ Lisa See

She hugged me and I could feel the heat rise in my face, either from shame or love, like there was a difference.

~ Christopher Moore

It’s good to feel foolish sometimes, Fjerdan.”“You only say that because you have no shame.

~ Leigh Bardugo

I wouldn’t want you to get in the shower and then pass out or some such. How about if I help you get out of your clothes? I’m an expert in platonic undressings.” He gave me that wicked smile. “Give it a rest. I’m not going to strip naked in front of you, and I’d rather pee in private.” “Half the injuries in a home happen in the bathroom. What kind of friend would I be to let you face that kind of danger alone? I mean, sure, you walked out of death, but this is a shower.” “Shame. Get out of my bathroom.

~ Devon Monk