#guilt

When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself. ↗

— Anthony de Mello

#sin #guilt

The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one--or both. Usually both. ↗

— Susan Sontag

#guilt

When hatred judges, the verdict is just guilty. ↗

— Toba Beta

#hatred #judge #just #verdict #hatred

She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. She did something every child has done-she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her. But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim-of necessity she must put him away from her-he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. ↗

— Harper Lee

#institutions #society #persistence

I’m your worst nightmare come to walk this side of the lines. I’m an elf, Trent something you’re forgotten how to be. You’re scared of black magic. I can see fear shimmering under your aura like sweat. I live and breathe black magic. I’m so tainted with it that I will use it without thought, without guilt and without hesitation. ↗

— Kim Harrison

#guilt

Now, of course, the great thing about the solar system as a frontier is that there are no Indians, so you can have all the glory of the myth of the American westward expansion without any of the guilt. ↗

— Sarah Zettel

#american #any #course #expansion #frontier

Far be in from me to dictate how you should assuage your guilt. Do you have a lot of it?" She bit his good shoulder. "You're about to find out." She toppled them both off the bench and onto the mat. "Well, ouch. I take it guilt doesn't bring out your gentler side. ↗

— J.D. Robb

#guilt #roarke #death

Relationship is thus always slavery of a kind, which leaves a residue of guilt. ↗

— Ernest Becker

#relationships #death

...his monstrous dreams, peopled by ape-like creatures and by harlots with gleaming jewel eyes.. ↗

— James Joyce

#wonderful-imagery #dreams

In Europe the rich are refined enough to act as if they're not wealthy. That is how civilized people behave. If you ask me, being cultured and civilized is not about everyone being free and equal; it's about everyone being refined enough to act as if they were. Then no one has to feel guilty. ↗

— Orhan Pamuk

#culture #equality #guilt #refinement #rich