Unstained thoughts do seldom dream on evil.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Innocence is but a poor substitute for experience.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Innocence is like polished armor; it adorns and defends.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Every harlot was a virgin once.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
The temperate person’s pleasures are durable because they are regular; and all their life is calm and serene, because it is innocent.
—Unknown
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
It is well for the heart to be naive and for the mind not to be.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
The innocent is the person who explains nothing.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Innocence can be redefined and called stupidity. Honesty can be called gullibility. Candor becomes lack of common sense. Interest in your work can be called cowardice. Generosity can be called soft-headedness, and observe: the former is disturbing.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) English Writer, Feminist
Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Innocence alone dares commit certain acts of audacity. Virtue, when tutored, is as calculating as vice.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
A mind conscious of innocence laughs at the lies of rumor.
—Latin Proverb
Against the head which innocence secures, insidious malice aims her darts in vain; turned backward by the powerful breath of heaven.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
There is no aphrodisiac like innocence.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
We can catch buses and count our change and cross the roads and talk real sentences. But our innocence goes awfully deep, and our discreditable secret is that we don’t know anything at all, and our horrid inner secret is that we don’t care that we don’t.
—Dylan Thomas (1914–53) Welsh Poet, Author
Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I am to be broken. I am to be derided all my life. I am to be cast up and down among these men and women, with their twitching faces, with their lying tongues, like a cork on a rough sea. Like a ribbon of weed I am flung far every time the door opens.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
The silence, often, of pure innocence, persuades when speaking fails.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
But innocence has nothing to dread.
—Jean Racine (1639–1699) French Dramatist
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
It’s innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn’t.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
All things truly wicked start from an innocence.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The innocence that feels no risk and is taught no caution is more vulnerable than guilt, and oftener assailed.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
Innocence and ignorance are sisters. But there are noble and vulgar sisters. Vulgar innocence and ignorance are mortal, they have pretty faces, but wholly without expression, and of a transient beauty; the noble sisters are immortal, their lofty forms are unchangeable, and their countenances are still radiant with the light of paradise. They dwell in heaven, and visit only the noblest and most severely tried of mankind.
—Novalis (1772–1801) German Romantic Poet, Novelist
Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters