Innocence is like polished armor; it adorns and defends.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Innocence alone dares commit certain acts of audacity. Virtue, when tutored, is as calculating as vice.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
Now my innocence begins to weigh me down.
—Jean Racine (1639–1699) French Dramatist
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 (1904–1991) British Novelist, Short Story Writer, Playwright
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
Innocence is but a poor substitute for experience.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
There is no aphrodisiac like innocence.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
All things truly wicked start from an innocence.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Prudishness is pretense of innocence without innocence. Women have to remain prudish as long as men are sentimental, dense, and evil enough to demand of them eternal innocence and lack of education. For innocence is the only thing which can ennoble lack of education.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) German Man of Letters, Critic
Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime.
—Maximilien Robespierre (1758–94) French Revolutionary
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 innocent seldom find an uneasy pillow.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
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
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 have not the innocence of Eden; but by God’s help and Christ’s example we may have the victory of Gethsemane.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Ignorance is not innocence but sin.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the law, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
But innocence has nothing to dread.
—Jean Racine (1639–1699) French Dramatist
The temperate person’s pleasures are durable because they are regular; and all their life is calm and serene, because it is innocent.
—Unknown
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
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 most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The silence, often, of pure innocence, persuades when speaking fails.
—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
Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Unstained thoughts do seldom dream on evil.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions of the world, than I when I was a child.
—Thomas Traherne (1636–74) English Metaphysical Poet, Mystic
Leave a Reply