However boldly their warm blood was spilt, Their life was shame, their epitaph was guilt; And this they knew and felt, at least the one, The leader of the hand he had undone,-- Who, born for better things, had madly set His life upon a cast, which linger'd yet.
Lord Byron
Guilt was never a rational thing; it distorts all the faculties of the human mind, it perverts them, it leaves a man no longer in the free use of his reason, it puts him into confusion
Edmund Burke
Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.
Hannah Arendt
The difference between guilt and shame is very clearóin theory. We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are.
LEWIS B. SMEDES
No acquisitions of guilt can compensate the loss of that solid inward comfort of mind, which is the sure companion of innocence and virtue; nor can in the least balance the evil of that horror and anxiety which, in their room, guilt introduces into our bosoms.
Henry Fielding
Men's minds are too ready to excuse guilt in themselves.
Livy
The greatest incitement to guilt is the hope of sinning with impunity.
Cicero
Without the spice of guilt, sin cannot be fully savored.
Alexander Chase
It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.
Johann Friedrich Von Schiller
Guilt is the source of sorrows, the avenging fiend that follows us behind with whips and stings.
Nicholas Rowe
Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.
Erma Bombeck
A land of levity is a land of guilt.
Edward Young
He who flees from trial confesses his guilt.
Syrus