Old maids sweeten their tea with scandal.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Shame is a great restraint upon sinners at first; but that soon falls off: and when men have once lost their innocence, their modesty is not like to be long troublesome to them. For impudence comes on with vice, and grows up with it. Lesser vices do not banish all shame and modesty; but great and abominable crimes harden men’s foreheads, and make them shameless. When men have the heart to do a very bad thing, they seldom want the face to bear it out.
—John Tillotson
There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
Less shame a greater fault would palliate.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Scandal is merely the compassionate allowance which the gay make to the humdrum. Think how many blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretions of other people.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, half wishing they were dead to save the shame. The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow; They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats, and flare up bodily, wings and all. What then? Who’s sorry for a gnat or girl?
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
What a man is ashamed of is always at bottom himself; and he is ashamed of himself at bottom always for being afraid.
—R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943) English Philosopher, Historian, Archaeologist
She is absolutely inadmissible into society. Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The man that blushes is not quite a brute.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
A nightingale dies for shame if another bird sings better.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
It is the guilt, not the scaffold, which constitutes the shame.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
There’s a blush for won t, and a blush for shan’t, and a blush for having done it: There’s a blush for thought and a blush for naught, and a blush for just begun it.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
He scratched his ear, the infallible resource to which embarrassed people have recourse.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The guilty catch themselves
—Common Proverb
Be assured that when once a woman begins to be ashamed of what she ought not to be ashamed of, she will not be ashamed of what she ought.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
Shame is an ornament to the young; a disgrace to the old.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
While shame keeps watch virtue is not wholly extinguished from the heart, nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the mind of tyrants.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Avoid shame but do not seek glory—nothing so expensive as glory.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
False shame only is harmful
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
The extremes of glory and of shame, Like east and west, become the same No Indian prince has to his palace – More followers than a thief to the gallows
—Samuel Butler
One of the misfortunes of our time is, that in getting rid of false shame, we have killed off so much real shame as well.
—Louis Kronenberger (1904–80) American Drama, Literary Critic
The embarrassing thing is that the salad dressing is out-grossing my films.
—Paul Newman (1925–2008) American Actor, Philanthropist
Of all kinds of shame, the worst, surely, is being ashamed of frugality or poverty.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
Certain it is that scandal is good brisk talk, whereas praise of one’s neighbor is by no means lively hearing. An acquaintance grilled, scored, devilled, and served with mustard and cayenne pepper excites the appetite; whereas a slice of cold friend with currant jelly is but a sickly, unrelishing meat.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
If a man fools me once, shame on him. If he fools me twice, shame on me.
—Chinese Proverb
One should never make one’s debut with a scandal. One should reserve that to give an interest to one’s old age.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright