Top 100 Self Shame Quotes
#1. Don't underestimate the power of a guilty mind. Never underestimate self-shame and self-destruction.
Tim Hawken
#2. It could be argued that all perfume is born out of shame; a self-consciousness of our natural odour.
Kathleen Tessaro
#4. When someone reacts violently and aggressively, it only goes to demonstrate the lack of truth, trust and confidence in oneself and issue that we are defending. It rather portrays the guilt, shame and self anger for defending the indefensible.
Vishwas Chavan
#5. Oh what a shame, if she thought any beauty that she has came from him. She didn't understand the beauty of her own skin.
Jasmine Sandozz
#6. Shame
what happened when my mother, the dragon, huffed and puffed and blew my self down.
Brennan Manning
#7. We all place ourselves at various levels, and we are constantly falling from these heights. It is the falls we are ashamed of. Self-esteem is the cause of our shame, of our fall. It is this self-esteem that must be understood, and not the fall.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
#8. It is shame to be an impostor ... it only means u gave up! ... it is impossible to be perfect ... but it is possible to believe in your self ...
Woody
#9. Anger and shame laced with loneliness spread throughout her, heating her to the core. Self-pity wasn't something Bess would normally succumb to, but things in the past few months had fallen apart, and there was no one there to help pick up the pieces.
Inger Iversen
#10. Will, therefore, is the unbroken determination to exercise free choice as well as self-restraint, in spite of the unavoidable experience of shame and doubt in infancy.
Erik Erikson
#11. Those who make hostility a daily manner are often left in the lurch at difficult times.
Michael Bassey Johnson
#12. One of the reasons we judge each other so harshly in this world of parenting is because ... we perceive anyone else who's doing anything differently than what we're doing as criticizing our choices.
Brene Brown
#13. The mistake ninety-nine percent of humanity made, as far as Fats could see, was being ashamed of what they were; lying about it, trying to be somebody else.
J.K. Rowling
#14. Hiding. Covering up. Self-protection. Feeling exposed. They are telltale signs of shame.
Edward T. Welch
#15. I want to drag knives over my skin, just to feel something other than shame, but I'm not even brave enough for that
Paula Hawkins
#16. Don't stay too long in the shame-filled grounds of relapse. Fertile soil awaits your return and your recoverying.
Holli Kenley
#17. There is no shame in having been the woman I was. She made me the woman I am.
Julie-Anne
#18. To truly esteem oneself means that one must be capable of feeling shame or self-disgust when one does not live up to a certain standard
Francis Fukuyama
#19. All my life I have battled the alarm clock, pummeling the snooze button over and over with mounting self-loathing until the shame is finally strong enough to lever me upright.
Isaac Marion
#20. Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.
Brene Brown
#21. Self redemption is the first step to exoneration from guilt.
Dennis E. Adonis
#22. If we want freedom from perfectionism, we have to make the long journey from "What will people think?" to "I am enough." That journey begins with shame resilience, self-compassion, and owning our stories.
Brene Brown
#23. This body needs me to say yes to it, just as it is right now. No more singing that same old jingle of body-shame and dieter's promised lands.
Kimber Simpkins
#24. I don't think anyone's sexuality needs to be a public issue other than to give others the confidence to love themselves wholeheartedly and to be their true, authentic self without any shame.
Crystal Bowersox
#25. It's a bizarre act of self-mutilation to say that 'I don't get on with science fiction and fantasy, therefore I'm never going to read any'. What a shame. All those great books that you're cutting yourself off from.
David Mitchell
#26. When did it something of shame or ridicule to be a self-made man in America?
Glenn Beck
#27. Humiliation is about shame. Becoming humble is about being of use to others. It helps you get off the self-pity pot and stop wallowing around in your own crap.
Amy Hatvany
#28. I walked, floated, lighter - forty miles, my biggest day yet. I'd lifted the burden of guilt and shame off my body. I held my new hard-won wisdom, the gift three months of walking in the wilderness had carried me to: compassion for my younger self - forgiveness for my innocence.
Aspen Matis
#29. He looked up at the reddening sky and said with a self-deprecating laugh, "You put me to shame, Seraphina. Your bravery always has."
"It's not bravery; it's bullheaded bumbling."
He shook his head, staring off into the middle distance. "I know courage when I see it, and when I lack it.
Rachel Hartman
#30. As never before, he understood the vitality of tradition, the dignity of the worship of what had existed before one's own self had come into being. There was no shame in awe; there was exaltation. ("Cafe Endless: Spring Rain")
Nancy Holder
#31. There is no shame in ignorance before a higher power but there is shame in arrogance.
Ian-Anthony Finnimore
#32. Sometimes to submit is to know you have a life worth living for a higher purpose, worth seeing through.
A.J. Darkholme
#33. When you go through a traumatic event, there's a lot of shame that comes with that. A lot of loss of self-esteem. That can become debilitating.
Willie Aames
#34. Ironically, parenting is a shame and judgment minefield precisely because most of us are wading through uncertainty and self-doubt when it comes to raising our children.
Brene Brown
#35. Who is there that can adequately gauge the greatness of the humility, gentleness, self-surrender, revealed by the Lord of majesty in assuming human nature, in accepting the punishment of death, the shame of the cross?
Saint Bernard
#36. Sustaining relationships with others requires a good relationship to ourselves. Healthy self-esteem is an internal sense of worth that pulls one neither into 'better than' grandiosity nor 'less than' shame.
Terrence Real
#37. I am forever engaged in a silent battle in my head over whether or not to lift the fork to my mouth, and when I talk myself into doing so, I taste only shame. I have an eating disorder.
Jena Morrow
#38. Apologies often cannot undo pain; but they can acknowledge it. And part of the cruelty of bullying is that the bruises it leaves are on the inside - it's a hidden form of violence, shrouded by shame.
Mathew N. Schmalz
#39. Oh Lord, give us a sense of humor with courage to manifest it forth, so that we may laugh to shame the pomps, the vanities, the sense of self-importance of the Big Fellows that the world sometimes sends among us, and who try to take our peace away.
Sean O'Casey
#40. Masturbation is a meditation on self-love. So many of us are afflicted with self-loathing, bad body images, shame about our body functions, and confusion about sex and pleasure, I recommend an intense love affair with yourself
Betty Dodson
#41. I hope this works. Its such a shame, both so young. I thought we would've had more time. I thought the Fates would've let the prophecy play it self out. The way it should be.
Candace Knoebel
#42. The disowned part of self is an energy - an emotion or desire or need, that has been shamed every time it emerged. These energy patterns are repressed but not destroyed. They are alive in our unconscious.
John Bradshaw
#43. You are in the grip of a desire for martyrdom and self-sacrifice; conquer this desire as well, set aside your pages and your intention
and then you will overcome everything. You will put to shame all your pride and your demon! You will win, you will attain freedom ...
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
#44. You need not spend your life wallowing in failure, ignorance, grief, poverty, shame and self-pity. There is a better way to live.
Og Mandino
#45. Shame is internalized when one is abandoned. Abandonment is the precise term to describe how one loses one's authentic self and ceases to exist psychologically.
John Bradshaw
#46. Hopelessness sets in, when a man is bound up in his shame
living small, within that closed horizon of fantasy and self-absorption.
Andrew Comiskey
#47. I love that Katie would never, ever, in a million years, treat anyone as blatantly shitty as you've treated her tonight. It's a shame you're so thoroughly self-absorbed that it renders you incapable of getting to know her, because believe me, if you could, you'd be a better person for it.
Kim Holden
#48. Sonship is a heart that feels at rest and secure in God's love; it believes it belongs, it is free from shame and self-condemnation, it walks in honor toward all people, and it is willing to humble itself before man and God. It is subject to God's mission to experience His love and to give it away.
Jack Frost
#49. There is nothing spiritual about a marriage that uses guilt, blame, shame or religious manipulations to keep a relationship together.
Shannon L. Alder
#50. You can't hate yourself happy, You can't criticize yourself thin, You can't shame yourself wealthy. Real change begins with self-love and self care.
Jessica Ortner
#51. Love is a prayer, begin it with self. If you can worship yourself without shame or guilt, you will be able to respect others.
Vishwas Chavan
#52. Suffering ... is not just lots of pain but pain amplified by distinctly human emotions such as regret, self-pity, shame, humiliation, and dread.
Michael Pollan
#53. Self-compassion is key because when we're able to be gentle with ourselves in the midst of shame, we're more likely to reach out, connect, and experience empathy.
Brene Brown
#55. I saw for the first time that I could stop giving people the power to make me feel disrespected. In my anger I began to see the absurdity of allowing this boy to shame me.
Aspen Matis
#56. Resiliency is the body's internal response to a stressful situation.
Asa Don Brown
#58. Often self-love is replaced with self- loathing, compounded by beating ourselves up. We become experts at putting ourselves down, judging ourselves, and finding fault. This creates deep shame that says "I am a mistake" instead of saying "I made a mistake.
David W. Earle
#59. World's definition of success
material validation of self
cold and naked substitute
for inner warmth and beauty.
David W. Earle
#60. Be gentle and forgiving with yourself, abandon any and all shame, and refuse to engage in any self-repudiation.
Wayne Dyer
#61. I have never seen a person grow or change in a self - constructive meaningful way when motivated by guilt, shame, or self hate.
Herb Goldberg
#62. Every major life decision I made came from my pain, guilt and shame...even down to the man I chose for a husband.
Elona Washington
#63. 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.
William Cowper
#64. I'm much more self-conscious clothed than unclothed. I'm a frustrated Page Three girl. I have no shame about my body.
Susannah Constantine
#65. Self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.
Billy Graham
#66. I can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with a S maybe, S for silent, S for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame.
Laurie Halse Anderson
#67. Secondly, if we continue to view ourselves as moral lepers and spiritual failures, if our lives are shadowed by low self-esteem, shame, remorse, unhealthy guilt, and self-hatred, we reject the teaching of Jesus and cling to our negative self-image. In
Brennan Manning
#68. There is a loneliness that can be consuming when one thrashes about with unspoken things, things that evoke shame or uncertainty or self-hatred.
Andrea Raynor
#69. Elinor, for shame!" said Marianne, "money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it. Beyond a competence, it can afford no real satisfaction, as far as mere self is concerned.
Jane Austen
#70. My name is Asher Lev ... I am a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflicter of shame upon my family, my friends, my people; also, I am a mocker of ideas sacred to Christians, a blasphemous manipulator of modes and forms revered by Gentiles for two thousand years.
Chaim Potok
#71. I don't know if he'll even look at me, because I can barely look at myself.
Gail McHugh
#72. To be sure an European woman would blush to her fingers' ends at the very idea of appearing publicly stark naked; but education and prejudice are everything, since it is an axiom, that where there is no feeling of self-reproach, there can assuredly be no shame.
John Gabriel Stedman
#73. The criminalization and demonization of black men has turned the black community against itself, unraveling community and family relationships, decimating networks of mutual support, and intensifying the shame and self-hate experienced by the current pariah caste.
Michelle Alexander
#74. I should learn patience, it's a shame there's no time for that.
Maija Haavisto
#75. And if redemption was self-serving, coming as it did ribbon-tied to what he wanted most in life? For once, Akiva's shame wouldn't rise to the bait. He wanted what he'd always wanted, and he'd better just say it, his own worries and fears be damned.
Laini Taylor
#76. The mask was a thing on it's own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness.
William Golding
#77. Never miss an opportunity to be truly and deeply humiliated! The shame will carve you down to an individual of exquisite layering, and in the process, etch within you the arcs of exceptional narrative.
Ashim Shanker
#79. It's an absurd request. Our minds, unedited by guilt or shame, are selfish and unkind, and the majority of our thoughts, at any given time, are not for public consumption, because they would either be hurtful or else just make us look like the selfish and unkind bastards we are.
Jonathan Tropper
#80. I am not racked with self-loathing. Some issues of guilt and shame, but I'm a pretty good guy.
Marcus Brigstocke
#81. When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordinary. I see the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose.
Brene Brown
#82. Self-consciousness isn't just A curse. It is part of THE curse.
Mark Batterson
#83. Jesus is not your accuser. He's not your prosecutor. He's not your judge. He's your friend and your rescuer. Like Zacchaeus, just spend time with Jesus. Don't hide from him in shame or reject him in self-righteousness.
Judah Smith
#84. The only way you will ever be free is when you decide you have had enough of living up to the standards other people force upon you through shame. Never wear their chains of judgment when they can't break free of their own.
Shannon L. Alder
#85. If you can be content with who you are, how you look and then try every day to make a difference to someone else, then it leads to a wonderful life. It's a shame more humans can't grasp that fact. - M.K. Clinton
M.K. Clinton
#86. If Nietzsche is correct, that to shame a man is to kill him, then any honest attempt at autobiography will be an act of self-destruction.
Albert Camus
#87. I had to sever my emotional cord to escape the anger and shame that silently slithered through my head, disconnecting myself from the stares and whispers that followed me down the hall.
Rebecca Donovan
#88. The joy of being a consumer is that it doesn't require thought, responsibility, self-awareness or shame: All you have to do is obey the first urge that gurgles up from your stomach. And then obey the next. And the next. And the next.
Matt Taibbi
#89. For years she had lived in a vacuum of emotions, and now emotions boiled in her: love, fear, hope, shame, self-pity, pride; each struggled for supremacy, ruling only briefly, before surrendering to a contender that was sometimes darker and sometimes lighter, but always different.
Stephen Lloyd Jones
#90. Shame makes self-acceptance and self-love impossible.
Bell Hooks
#91. Shame weakens us. It can make us frightened to take on something new. We start to withdraw from whatever might give us pleasure, self-esteem, or a sense of our value.
Sharon Salzberg
#92. A tranquil conscience invites freedom from anguish, sorrow, guilt, shame, and self-condemnation. It provides a foundation for happiness. It is a condition of immense worth.
Richard G. Scott
#93. But somewhere within each of us, buried at varying depths depending on the age and degree of neglect or abuse, shame or coercion we endured, there is a resistant, daydreaming, rebellious, creative, unique child
a true self who is waiting.
Gloria Steinem
#94. And do you not think less of me for making my fortune in
such a way?" After all, her own sister did.
He gave her an odd look. "There is no shame in being the
mistress of a king. It's a position of great power and influence. I think less of Louis for letting you go.
Jenna Maclaine
#95. Because connection with others and our "best self" is the most primal need we have, shame feels absolutely awful.
Christiane Northrup
#96. 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.
Andre Aciman
#97. I was doing a children's book on self-esteem, and I really felt like I wanted to shed the shame I'd been feeling - and maybe make it easier for women my age who had probably felt bad about themselves.
Jamie Lee Curtis
#98. Why does shame and self-loathing become cruelty to the innocent ?
Anne Rice
#99. Children who use more shame self-talk (I am bad) versus guilt self-talk (I did something bad) struggle mightily with issues of self-worth and self-loathing. Using shame to parent teaches children that they are not inherently worthy of love.
Brene Brown
#100. Shame cannot survive being spoken. It cannot tolerate having words wrapped around it. What it craves is secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you stay quiet, you stay in a lot of self-judgment.
Brene Brown
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