Janet Fitch Quotes

Just let yourself be broken and humiliated. Just your whole life, keep telling people, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

To deal with the stark reality of having hit or hurt a woman or child, to deal with the initial responsibility you have not to do that and the knowledge you did do it, can be incredibly hard.

A lover would find life less broken apart after a misguided love affair if they could feel that they had been sinful rather than foolish.

No one starts as a self-hater. But rack up all of your mistakes and take a large enough number of wrong turns in life and soon you stop trying to forgive yourself. Everywhere you look you find shame or failure staring back.

I wish there was someone I could have written to after that, someone I could have written to explain how awful it was to have someone touch you, then look at you properly and change his mind.

Guilt is just as powerful, but its influence is positive, while shame's is destructive. Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement.

I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation and kids all around the world who admired me.

Shall I, that have destroyed my Preservers, return home?

That heart alone is hard which does not shudder at itself for not feeling its hardness.

I regret so much. I've made mistakes. I've hurt people. I've done things I'm not proud of. But on the other hand, that way lies madness, you know?

Shame is hard to confront. Even if you know it's baseless, it's still hard to come face-to-face with.

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.

I felt like I couldn't wallow in self-pity forever. I can't beat myself up forever.

Your only shame is to have shame.

You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated.

He'd pushed her. He'd scared her. He'd besieged her. He'd vowed he wouldn't, and he did.

I have never forgiven myself…that I might have made a mistake.

I'm overwhelmed by shame that the people who had the responsibility to take care of the tender ones violated that trust and caused them great pain.

By the time she got back to work, the only thing Gabby knew for certain was that as forgiving as he'd been, she'd never live down what she'd done, and since there wasn't a rock large enough to crawl under, it was in her best interest to find a way to avoid him.

Guilt is not the best way to remedy your mistakes.

I’m sick of being everyone’s regret. My mother died in shame because she’d borne me. My father and brother despise me and my sister can barely look me in the eye! (Acheron)

Shame makes people abandon their children and drink themselves to death. It also keeps us from true happiness. An apology is a glorious release.

Don't confuse your grief with guilt.

It’s not always enough to be forgiven by someone, in most cases we have to forgive ourselves first.

Shame has poor memory.