Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

There's so much guilt there attached to having a perfectly good life.

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

How awful is that hour when con, science stings.

Guilt is a spiritual Rubicon.

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

The best definition I've heard is that guilt is about what you've done, shame is about who you are. If something's out of my control, I don't feel shame about it, because what could I have done? If you're guilty, you can at least try to atone for it or make it better or not do it again. If it's who you are, you can't do much about it except change yourself, and that's pretty hard.

I was just a kid. I think I stole a candy bar. I remember feeling so terrible. It was the worst shock. I was probably 7. That's my least favorite feeling: guilt.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

What is guilt? Guilt is the pledge drive constantly hammering in our heads that keeps us from fully enjoying the show. Guilt is the reason they put the articles in Playboy.

I'd feel guilty just doing gags.

Guilt is a weird thing to me. I don't have a lot of it.

I don't want to forgive myself. That's why I hate psychoanalysis I think if you're guilty of something you should live with it. Get rid of it - how can you get rid of a real guilt? I think people should live with it, face up to it.

Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel. "You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know," Haymitch says.

The bite of conscience is indecent.

I have done bad things. I can't take them back, and they are part of who I am. Most of the time, they seem like the only thing I am.

The Anglo-Saxon conscience does not prevent the Anglo-Saxon from sinning, it merely prevents him from enjoying his sin.

He, who survives his reputation, lives out of despite himself, like a man listening to his own reproach.

Guilt's a terrible thing.

Shame works like the zoom lens on a camera. When we are feeling shame, the camera is zoomed in tight and all we see is our flawed selves, alone and struggling.(page 68)

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

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

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

Being guilty tends to engender feelings of guilt.

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.