And then it started, like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Adversity, how blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver in comparison with those of guilt.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
There is wickedness in the intention of wickedness, even though it be not perpetrated in the act.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
To what gulfs
A single deviation from the track
Of human duties leads even those who claim
The homage of mankind as their born due,
And find it, till they forfeit it themselves!
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
He who helps the guilty, shares the crime.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
A land of levity is a land of guilt.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Fraud and falsehood are his weak and treacherous allies; and he lurks trembling in the dark, dreading every ray of light, lest it should discover him, and give him up to shame and punishment.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
The gods Grow angry with your patience. ‘Tis their care, And must be yours, that guilty men escape not: As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
He who denies his guilt doubles his guilt.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Oh, she is fallen into a pit of ink that the wide sea hath drops too few to wash her clean again!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
If any blame be attached to thee, be the first to declare it.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
There are no greater prudes than those women who have some secret to hide.
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
However boldly their warm blood was spilt,
Their life was shame, their epitaph was guilt;
And this they knew and felt, at least the one,
The leader of the hand he had undone,—
Who, born for better things, had madly set
His life upon a cast, which linger’d yet.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness, will appear tomorrow as an essential link in the complete chain of Man.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
Let guilty men remember, their black deeds
Do lean on crutches made of slender reeds.
—John Webster (1580–1634) English Dramatist, Poet
Men’s minds are too ready to excuse guilt in themselves.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
Guilt soon learns to lie.
—Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) English Novelist
Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Guilt is a rope that wears thin.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
We forget our guilt when we have confessed it to another, but the other does not usually forget it.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
Every man bears something within him that, if it were publicly announced, would excite feelings of aversion.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
They who engage in iniquitous designs miserably deceive themselves when they think they will go so far and no farther; one fault begets another; one crime renders another necessary; and thus they are impelled continually downward into a depth of guilt, which at the commencement of their career they would have died rather than have incurred.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Those who start war often know that because of their high political position their own lives will not be in danger on the Diane Rehm Show.
—Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader
The ghostly consciousness of wrong.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist