Bill Wilson Quotes

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

Guilt starts as a feeling of failure.

I’ve blamed her for all of this, for leaving, for ruining me. And maybe that was the seed of it, but from that one little seed grew this tumor of a flowering plant. And I’m the one who nurtures it. I water it. I care for it.I nibble from its poison berries. I let it wrap around my neck, choking the air right out of me. I’ve done that. All by myself. All to myself.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.

I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up.

I apologise now to everybody for being the way I've been. What I was doing, torturing myself over an illness, is horrible. You push them away because you're trying to quantify what's gone on.

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.

The only person I have hurt is myself.

Guilt: I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Shame: I'm sorry. I am a mistake.

Humans punish themselves endlessly for not being what they believe they should be. They become very self-abusive, and they use other people to abuse themselves as well.

Shame is the shadow of love.

Do you absolutely despise me, Walter?" "No." He hesitated and his voice was strange. "I despise myself.

We gather our arms full of guilt as though it were precious stuff. It must be that we want it that way.

Guilt is feeling bad about what you have done; shame is feeling bad about who you are - all it is, is muddling up things you have done with who you are.

When we cannot be delivered from ourselves, we delight in devouring ourselves.

I hate the past - especially my own past.

Shame is such an intense emotion. It just can drive you.

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

I never hurt anybody; I only hurt myself and my family. I never did anything mean to anybody, I was just mean to myself.

What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.

I had such intense self-loathing for so long.

There was a sentence in your letter that struck me, “I wish I were far away from everything, I am the cause of all, and bring only sorrow to everybody, I alone have brought all this misery on myself and others.” These words struck me because that same feeling, just the same, not more nor less, is also on my conscience.

Self-hatred is worse than loneliness.

As a youth, I hated myself for not being good enough. All my inadequacies and failures, not being kind enough, generous or understanding enough, would assail me at night. It became a habit to be guilty and self castigating, not liking myself because I was unworthy... I really tortured myself.