Andrei Sakharov Quotes

How awful is that hour when con, science stings.

I just felt sick. I was actually executing people. I knew it was wrong, and I should have voted against it. But I didn’t.

The bite of conscience is indecent.

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.

I never know which is worse: the sorrow when you hit the bird or the shame when you miss it.

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'm not proud of killing, of being responsible for the death of a single person. I never will be.

To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible - that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins.

When I wake up in night sweats, that's what I'm thinking about: what if someone grabs me from my past and says, 'I heard you drag me to filth on your podcast.'

I have survivor's remorse.

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

Nothing more unqualified the man to act with prudence than a misfortune that is attended with shame and guilt.

I am doing the right thing, he told himself, so why do I feel so bad?

I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.

A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn't have to live with this lie anymore. But no one woke up and in the silence that followed, I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it.

I couldn't help thinking about my dream, with Annabeth crumpled and lifeless in Luke's arms. Here I was rescuing baby monsters, but I couldn't save my friend.

Inside Laila too a battle was being waged : guilt on one side, partnered with shame, and, on the other, the conviction that what she and Tariq had done was not sinful; that it had been natural, good, beautiful, even inevitable, spurred by the knowledge that they might never see each other again.

Guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes; and, to make it yet more shameful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand in awe of those to whom nothing could give influence or weight but their power of betraying.

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

To this day I don’t know if he was struggling with the moral implications of gunning down half a dozen civilians, or if he was mentally counting to see if he had that many shells left in the gun.

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

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

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

To have lied is to have suffered.

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