Patrick Ness Quotes

...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.

Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses.

In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

He [man] knows that when he is not what he ought to be; when he does what he ought not to do; or omits what he ought to do, he is chargeable with sin

Guilt is what separates humans from animals.

A man should not play the coward to his deeds. He should not repudiate them once he has performed them. Pangs of conscience are indecent.

What is guilt? It is moral self-reproach-I did wrong when it was possible to have done otherwise.

Guilt soon learns to lie.

There is a guilty conscience behind every brazen word and act and behind every manifestation of self-righteousness.

Guilt is glorious when it's well earned.

If anyone has a conscience it's generally a guilty one.

A man's conscience, like a warning line on the highway, tells him what he shouldn't do - but it does not keep him from doing it.

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.

Even when we know what is right, too often we fail to act. More often we grab greedily for the day, letting tomorrow bring what it will, putting off the unpleasant and unpopular.

We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are.

I think, don't you, that a girl with any delicacy of feeling couldn't bring herself to marry a man indirectly responsible for her father's death. No matter how much she was in love with him.

The Anglo-Saxon conscience does not prevent the Anglo-Saxon from sinning, it merely prevents him from enjoying his sin.

Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.

A good person will feel guilty even before a dog.

Whom conscience, ne'er asleep, Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep.

Guilt is a spiritual Rubicon.

I believe in guilt. There's not enough guilt around these days for my taste.

If I could, Sister James, I would certainly choose to live in innocence. But innocence can only be wisdom in a world without evil. Situations arise and we are confronted with wrongdoing and the need to act.

A guilty conscience means at least you have one.