James Gates Percival Quotes

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

The bite of conscience, like the bite of a dog into a stone, is a stupidity.

A thorn in the flesh is nothing compared to a thorn in the conscience.

O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!

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

The bite of conscience is indecent.

Few things are as bad as a guilty conscience.

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

Psychologically, we all have that cross to bear when we do shady things.

My conscience aches but it's going to lose the fight.

Guilt is the very nerve of sorrow.

Come t'e' picciol fallo amaro morso! Dante. What grievous pain a little fault doth give thee!

I could not stop something I knew was wrong and terrible. I had an awful sense of powerlessness.

I mean, I felt terrible. And in the beginning, I mean, I was completely devastated. I mean, can you imagine the kind of guilt that you would feel, and the responsibility?

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!

Man, wretched man, whene'er he stoops to sin, Feels, with the act, a strong remorse within.

The hardest thing usually to leave behind, as was the case now, can loosely be called the conscience.

How tedious is a guilty conscience!

Thoughts cannot form themselves in words so horrid As can express my guilt.

My arms are up to the elbows in blood. That is the most terrible thing that lies in my soul.

I felt for my crime a just terror; I looked on my life with hate, and my passion with horror.

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

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.