Shame

Shame is regarded variously as an affect, emotion, cognition, state, or condition of embarrassment, dishonor, disgrace, inadequacy, humiliation, or chagrin. The roots of the word shame are thought to derive from an older word meaning to cover; as such, covering oneself, literally or figuratively, is a natural expression of shame. "To shame" generally means to actively assign or communicate a state of shame to another. Behaviors designed to "uncover" or "expose" others are sometimes used for this purpose, as are utterances like "Shame!" or "Shame on you!" Finally, to "have shame" means to maintain a sense of restraint against offending others (as with modesty, humility, and deference) while to "have no shame" is to behave without such restraint (as with excessive pride or hubris).

• You do not wish to name Zeus, who had done it, and who made
  all things grow, for where there is fear there is also shame.
  • Author unknown, quoted by Socrates, in Euthyphro, 12a-b.

• Antony, however, according to his custom, returned alone to his own cell, increased his discipline, and sighed daily as he thought of the mansions in Heaven, having his desire fixed on them, and pondering over the shortness of man's life. And he used to eat and sleep, and go about all other bodily necessities with shame when he thought of the spiritual faculties of the soul. So often, when about to eat with any other hermits, recollecting the spiritual food, he begged to be excused, and departed far off from them, deeming it a matter for shame if he should be seen eating by others.
  • Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of Anthony of Egypt § 45.

• Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
  • The Bible, Genesis 2:25, New International Version

• I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
  • The Bible, Epistle to the Romans 1:16, New International Version

• I can remember (I remember)
  Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
  And the guns, shot above our heads (over our heads)
  And we kissed, as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)
  And the shame, was on the other side
  Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever
  Then we could be Heroes, just for one day
  • David Bowie, Heroes (1977)

• A nightingale dies for shame if another bird sings better.
  • Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I, Section II. Memb. 3. Subsec. 6.

• If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
  • Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker (2016)

• It's a great big shame, and if she belongs to me,
  I'll let 'er know who's who.
  Naggin' at a fella who is six foot three
  And 'er only four foot two.
  They 'adn't been married, not a month or more,
  When underneath 'er thumb goes Jim.
  Oh isn't it a pity that the likes of er
  Should put upon the likes of im!
  • Gus Elen, "It's A Great Big Shame" (1935)

• "Like a dog!" he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.
  • Franz Kafka, The Trial (1920), Chapter 10, end of the book.

• Love taught him shame, and shame, with love at strife,
  Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.
  • John Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia (1700), line 133.

• The only art her guilt to cover,
  To hide her shame from every eye,
  To give repentance to her lover,
  And wring his bosom, is—to die.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Chapter XXIV.

• A shamefaced man makes a bad beggar.
  • Homer, The Odyssey (8th century BC), Chapter XVII, line 78.

• Yet of old the matter seemed even to be a law, and a certain law-giver among them bade the domestic slaves neither to use ointments when dry (i.e. except in bathing) nor to keep youths, giving the free this place of honor, or rather of shamefulness. Yet they, however, did not think the thing shameful, but as being a grand privilege, and one too great for slaves, the Athenian people, the wisest of people, and Solon who is so great among them, permitted it to the free alone. And sundry other books of the philosophers may one see full of this disease. But we do not therefore say that the thing was made lawful, but that they who received this law were pitiable, and objects for many tears. For these are treated in the same way as women that play the whore. Or rather their plight is more miserable. For in the case of the one the intercourse, even if lawless, is yet according to nature: but this is contrary both to law and nature. For even if there were no hell, and no punishment had been threatened, this were worse than any punishment. Yet if you say they found pleasure in it, you tell me what adds to the vengeance. For suppose I were to see a person running naked, with his body all besmeared with mire, and yet not covering himself, but exulting in it, I should not rejoice with him, but should rather bewail that he did not even perceive that he was doing shamefully.
  • John Chrysostom, Homily on Romans IV.

• As long as you will have a feeling of shame, you will not lightly commit sins.
  • Moses, Legends of the Jews (1913), Volume II, Chapter II.

• it was just as important to me to recognize loss and turmoil just as I chose to share joy...I believe it is just as important to highlight and memorialize all aspects of our world and cultures. To me, it is important not to bury the shame and trauma caused by the issues you ask about.
  • Daphne Odjig Interview (2014)

• Pudet hæc opprobria nobis
  Et dici potuisse et non potuisse repelli.
  • I am not ashamed that these reproaches can be cast upon us, and that they can not be repelled.
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses (AD 8), Book I. 758.

• Here shame dissuades him, there his fear prevails,
  And each by turns his aching heat assails.
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses (AD 8), Book III. Transformation of Actæon, line 73. Addison's translation.

• Racial discrimination a mark of shame on twentieth-century man, although intolerable to most humans can still be seen in various parts of the world. And the power-seeking policies of the strong are hampering the execution of United Nations' ideals.
  • Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, The Shah's Message on the occasion of the 23rd Anniversary of the Foundation of the United Nations - October 24, 1968

• O shame! Where is thy blush?
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 4, line 82.

• All is confounded, all!
  Reproach and everlasting shame
  Sits mocking in our plumes.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry V (c. 1599), Act IV, scene 5, line 3.

• He was not born to shame:
  Upon his brow shame was asham'd to sit;
  For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd
  Sole monarch of the universal earth.
  • William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act III, scene 2, line 91.

• We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinion, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.
  • Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903), Act I.

• Wine and women corrupt the best of men; whoever frequents prostitutes loses all sense of shame.
  • Ben Sirach, Wisdom of Sirach

• Therefore, feel shame according to what I say. It is not always fitting to feel shame, but this is not understood by everyone. Be ashamed of licentiousness before your father and mother, and of a lie before a ruler or an important person. Be ashamed of criminal behavior before a judge, and of iniquity before an assembly of people. Feel ashamed of dishonesty before your partner or friend, and of a theft in the place where you live. Be ashamed before the truth of God and his covenant. Be ashamed of keeping the loaves for yourself, of being unable to give and to receive, of not returning a greeting, of staring at a prostitute, of rejecting a compatriot, of depriving someone of what is his, of gazing at another man’s wife, of being too familiar with your maidservant– keep away from her bed! of insulting words to a friend – do not follow up a gift with a reproach! of repeating what you have heard and betraying secrets. On these occasions feel genuine shame and you will be respected by all.
  • Ben Sirach, Wisdom of Sirach Chapter 41 : 16-27

• Contra impudentem stulta est nimia ingenuitas
  • Too much straightforwardness is foolish against a shameless person.
    • Publilius Syrus Sentences Maxim 123

• For the first time, I am ashamed to be a German.
  • Wilhelm II of Germany‎‎, in regard to Adolf Hitler's anti-Jewish campaign, after Kristallnacht (November 1938); as quoted in Our German Cousins : Anglo-German Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1974) by John Mander, p. 219.

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 702.

• Shame is an ornament to the young; a disgrace to the old.
  • Aristotle.

• Maggior difetto men vergogna lava.
  • Less shame a greater fault would palliate.
  • Dante Alighieri, Inferno, XXX. 142.

• If yet not lost to all the sense of shame.
  • Homer, The Iliad, Book VI, line 350. Pope's translation.

• Næ simul pudere quod non oportet cœperit; quod oportet non pudebit.
  • As soon as she (woman) begins to be ashamed of what she ought not, she will not be ashamed of what she ought.
  • Livy, Annales, XXXIV. 4.

• Pessimus quidem pudor vel est parsimoniæ vel frugalitatis.
  • The worst kind of shame is being ashamed of frugality or poverty.
  • Livy, Annales, XXXIV. 4.

• Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor.
  • I count him lost, who is lost to shame.
  • Plautus, Bacchides, III. 3. 80.

• The most curious offspring of shame is shyness.
  • Sydney Smith, Lecture on the Evil Affections.

• Remorse
• Repentance