Seneca the Younger Quotes

Whoever hates his sins will stop sinning; and whoever confesses them will receive remission. A man can not abandon the habit of sin if he does not first gain enmity toward sin, nor can he receive remission of sin without confession of sin. For the confession of sin is the cause of true humility.

Great is the difference betwixt a man's being frightened at, and humbled for his sins.

The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.

I think guilt is directional. You should get rid of it, but the way to get rid of it is not to get rid of the guilt feelings. It is to get rid of the wrong that you did that caused the guilt feelings.

As somebody once said, we're not punished for our sins, we're punished by them.

I repent daily my sins, my faults, and my shortcomings.

I am mindful that we're all sinners.

Be ashamed when you sin, not when you repent.

Confession basically means saying the same thing about your sin as God says. So if you say you want to develop integrity, but you're not willing to face the rough parts and confess them, you won't get there.

If thou hast sinned, lie not down without repentance; for the want of repentance, after one has sinned, makes the heart yet harder and harder.

Confess yourself to heaven, Repent what's past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost on the weeds To make them ranker.

I do not plan in any way to whitewash my sin. I do not call it a mistake, a mendacity; I call it sin. I would much rather, if possible - and in my estimation it would not be possible - to make it worse than less than it actually is. I have no one but myself to blame. I do not lay the fault or the blame of the charge at anyone else's feet. For no one is to blame but I take the responsibility. I take the blame. I take the fault.

Although you feel relief now, this is likely to be the source of many sleepless nights for you. You will lie awake, look upon your heart, and find it unlovely. You will be certain that (...) you are the greatest of monsters. This is a good thing; although you may forgive yourself, you must never come to think that your actions were in any way justifiable. But- (...) Being a sane, honorable human being is not always comfortable.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.

I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.

Nay, men are so far from musing of their sins, that they disdain this practise, and scoff at it: what say they, if all were of your mind; what should become of us? Shall we be always poring on our corruptions?

Sadly, we do a much better job of making people feel guilty than we do of delivering them from the guilt we create. We need to confess this and change our ways.

There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.

It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those that we intend to commit.

I don't know, maybe it's because I was raised Catholic. Confession has always held a great appeal for me.

Let God and all his creation teach you what your sins are.

I really believe guilt finds its way out of a person.

Regret is not a proactive feeling. It is situated in disappointment, sorrow, even remorse. It merely wishes things were different without an act to cause a difference. However, repentance is different. Repentance is an admission of, hatred of, and turning away from sin before God.