Peter McWilliams Quotes

We can actually put the essence of neurosis in a single word: blaming - or damning.

I was tormented with guilt for years and years. In fact, it was so bad that if I didn't feel wrong, I didn't feel right!

People have pain - they do regrettable things, they feel shame, and shame equals pain.

She went to the window seat and sat there, sniffling, hating them all, and herself most of all. It was all her fault, everything bad that had happened.

I know very well that I have no reason to feel aggrieved - I am fully aware of how lucky I am, but knowing it and still being down makes me hate myself all the more.

"It almost always happens that people enjoy a few moments and then afterwards feel very guilty. The guilt arises because of the ego. The ego starts torturing them, "What are you doing? Have you decided to kill me? And I am your only treasure. Killing me? You will be destroyed. Killing me is destroying yourself."

Our faults afflict us more than our good deeds console. Pain is ever uppermost in the conscience as in the heart.

Guilt is the most destructive of all emotions. It mourns what has been while playing no part in what may be, now or in the future.

Guilt starts as a feeling of failure.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

I've always turned my anger inwards towards self-destruction.

An angry father is most cruel towards himself.

We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow.

I feel bad that I don't feel worse.

My family made it through Hurricane Sandy. We have water, power, and a roof, but the survivor's guilt makes me want to hide. Sneak away from the brilliance of life. It shouts at me: 'Don't enjoy anything too much; people are suffering.' I feel childlike somehow.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

Whenever we feel shame, it's a mark of some deep investment or deep internal struggle.

Everything is my fault when you're me. I don't know why.

Denial, panic, threats, anger - those are very human responses to feeling guilt.

When I get out, I get annoyed with myself.

I hit my head against the wall because I don't want to know all the terrible things that I know about. I don't want to feel all these wretched things, but they're in me already. If I don't get rid of them, I'm not ever going to feel anything else.

Pain in the present is experienced as hurt. Pain in the past is remembered as anger. Pain in the future is perceived as anxiety. Unexpressed anger, redirected against yourself and held within, is called guilt. The depletion of energy that occurs when anger is redirected inward creates depression.

When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves.

Guilt can make you doubt yourself at the very moment when you need to proceed with certainty.

I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure.