They whose guilt within their bosom lies, imagine every eye beholds their blame.
William Shakespeare
God hath yoked to guilt her pale tormentor,--misery.
William Cullen Bryant
Shame is closely related to guilt, but there is a key qualitative difference. No audience is needed for feelings of guilt, no one else need know, for the guilty person is his own judge. Not so for shame. The humiliation of shame requires disapproval or ridicule by others. If no one ever learns of a misdeed there will be no shame, but there still might be guilt. Of course, there may be both. The distinction between shame and guilt is very important, since these two emotions may tear a person in opposite directions. The wish to relieve guilt may motivate a confession, but the wish to avoid the humiliation of shame may prevent it.
Paul Ekman,
Guilt is the source of sorrow, 'tis the fiend,Th' avenging fiend, that follows us behindWith whips and stings.
Nicholas Rowe
Guilt once harbored in the conscious breast, intimidates the brave, degrades the great.
Samuel Johnson
Action and care will in time wear down the strongest frame, but guilt and melancholy are poisons of quick dispatch.
Thomas Paine
He that is conscious of guilt cannot bear the innocence of others: So they will try to reduce all others to their own level.
Charles James Fox
The fearful face usually betrays great guilt.
Seneca
Nothing is more wretched that the mind of a man conscious of guilt.
Plautus
You cut up a thing that's alive and beautiful to find out how it's alive and why it's beautiful, and before you know it, it's neither of those things, and you're standing there with blood on your face and tears in your sight and only the terrible ache of guilt to show for it.
Clive Barker
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
Friedrich Nietzsche