Walter Scott Quotes

Guilt and no guilt: these were the worst things. The only thing worse than the guilt was the fear of getting caught.

The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.

Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment.

Conscience: something that feels terrible when everything else feels well.

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

The severest punishment suffered by a sensitive mind, for injury inflicted upon another, is the consciousness of having done it.

A guilty conscience means at least you have one.

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.

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

A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.

None but the guilty know the withering pains of repentance.

Sister, I won't ask for forgiveness, my sins are all I have.

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

Conscience, the executioner, shaking her secret scourge.

How awful is that hour when con, science stings.

From the body of one guilty deed a thousand ghostly fears and haunting thoughts proceed.

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

Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses.

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

If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment-as well as the prison.

Guilt once harbored in the conscious breast, intimidates the brave, degrades the great.

Remorse of conscience is like an old wound; a man is in no condition to fight under such circumstances. The pain abates his vigor and takes up too much of his attention.

The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorse in me.