Alice McDermott Quotes

A guilty conscience means at least you have one.

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

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

His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.

I'm trying to think of what I'm ashamed of. But, damn, I don't really have any shame.

Ah! it is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace.

Everyone performs bad actions... A bad person is someone who does not lament his bad actions.

There is no man that is knowingly wicked but is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him but he receives a sting in his soul.

I never did anything I'm really ashamed of.

To have guilt you've got to earn guilt, but sometimes when you earn it, you don't feel the guilt you ought to have. And that's what The Firebombing is about.

I'd feel guilty just doing gags.

My conscience is clear.

Behold, I am become a reproach to thy holy name, by serving any ambition and the sins of others; which though I did by the persuasion of other men, yet my own conscience did cheek and upbraid me in it.

Every nation, like every individual, would like to believe it owes 'no apology' to anyone. Adults realise, however, that few among us are purely innocent or utterly blameless.

Hard though it may be to accept, remember that guilt is sometimes a friendly internal voice reminding you that you're messing up.

I don't want to forgive myself. That's why I hate psychoanalysis I think if you're guilty of something you should live with it. Get rid of it - how can you get rid of a real guilt? I think people should live with it, face up to it.

I have never done anything which I feel guilty about or wish I had not done it.

None but the guilty know the withering pains of repentance.

Age whitens hairs, but not sin.

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

A good person will feel guilty even before a dog.

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

Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses.

Well, it was most likely too late; there would not be time for me to flagellate myself for every dishonorable deed in that list, nor any chance to make good the harms I’d done. Minor harms, to be sure, in the scheme of things; but large enough to regret.

Because he KNEW he was doing wrong. He felt the PAIN of his actions'-- 'But he did not amen them,' shows the Sky. 'The rest are worth as much as their pack animals,' I show, 'but worst is the one who knows better and does NOTHING.