Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

I don't really experience much embarrassment.

I'm not stupid. I know everybody thinks I am. I just don't like answering their questions.

The Refinement of Shame. People are not ashamed to think something foul, but they are ashamed when they think these foul thoughts are attributed to them.

We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so on. We always imagine, and in imagining share, the judgments of the other mind.

Shame, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.

I remember once acting really cool on a bus with this girl named Stephanie. When I got home, I realized that I had a really big zit on my forehead. If you have acne problems, you really shouldn't be acting like Don Juan.

I've generally got low levels of embarrassment.

I do embarrassing things all the time, but I don't really get embarrassed. It's like I'm unaware of my embarrassing things.

I felt like a dork growing up so this is shocking.

I remember once acting really cool on a bus with this girl named Stephanie. When I got home, I realized that I had a really big zit on my forehead. If you have acne problems, you really shouldn't be acting like Don Juan. I should have been contrite - and apologized for exposing her to the angry pimple.

I'm not sure that I am able to feel embarrassment.

In junior high P.E., I was way too shy to take a shower in front of the other kids. It was a horribly awkward time - body hair, odors... So I'd go from my sweaty shirt back into my regular clothes and have to continue the day.

You ask anybody what their number one fear is, and it's public humiliation. Multiply that on a global scale, and that's what I've been through.

This is odd, but there are certain things that are really embarrassing to talk about - one is my job and the success that I've had in it, and the other is money.

You know when you tell a self-deprecating story at a dinner party, everyone's laughing along with you? But then when someone else repeats that same story at another dinner party you feel they're all laughing at you?

Human beings feel dishonor the most, sometimes, when they most deserve it.

I think it's the human condition to be frequently embarrassed by your parents.

I don't feel ashamed or humiliated when I am naked, but I definitely feel it when I am playing games.

People usually want to show me their impression of me, which is always awkward.

Playing the nerd isn't necessarily the most ego-boosting role.

At first, I was scared that if I claimed I modeled, people would be like, 'What?'

The difference between guilt and shame is very clear--in theory. We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are. A person feels guilt because he did something wrong. A person feels shame because he is something wrong. We may feel guilty because we lied to our mother. We may feel shame because we are not the person our mother wanted us to be.

I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.

I think I'm a shy, self-conscious person who thinks he's being looked at and tries to look okay. Not in a hottie, narcissistic way necessarily.