Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Horace Mann (1796-1859) American educator
Baccalaureate address, Antioch College, Ohio (1859)
Final public address.
Quotations about:
shame
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Speak the truth and shame the Devil.
François Rabelais (1494-1553) French writer, humanist, doctor
Le Quart-Livre des faicts et dicts héroïques du bon Pantagruel, Prolog (1552)
Finish every day and be done with it. For manners and for wise living it is a vice to remember. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Letter to one of his daughters
(Source)
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator (1897)
There are scarcely any who are not ashamed of having loved, when they love no longer.
[Il n’y a guère de gens qui ne soient honteux de s’être aimés quand ils ne s’aiment plus.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶71 (1665-1678) [tr. Stevens (1939)]
(Source)
First appeared in the fifth (1678) edition.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
There are few people who are not ashamed of their amours when the fit is over.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶271; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶69]
Most people are ashamed of their amours when the fit is over.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶232]
There are very few people who, when their love is over, are not ashamed of having been in love.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶181]
There are few people who would not be ashamed of being beloved when they love no longer.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
There are few of us who are not ashamed of a mutual passion when love has died.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶177]
When two people have ceased to love, the memory that remains is almost always one of shame.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
Few people, when they love no longer, but feel shame for having loved.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
There are few people who, when their love for each other is dead, are not ashamed of that love.
[tr. Tancock (1959)]
There are few people who are not ashamed of having loved each other when they no longer do so.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]
Treat your employees as if they were writing a book about you.
Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (2003-08-17)
(Source)
Men don’t so much blush for their Crimes, as for their Weaknesses and Vanity.
[Les hommes rougissent moins de leurs crimes que de leurs faiblesses et de leur vanité.]
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 4 “Of the Heart [Du Coeur],” § 74 (4.74) (1688) [Bullord ed. (1696)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
Men blush not so much for their Crimes, as for their Weaknesses and Vanity.
[Curll ed. (1713)]
Men don't so much blush for their Crimes, as for their Weaknesses and Vanity.
[Browne ed. (1752)]
Men are less ashamed of their crimes than of their weaknesses and their vanity.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]
Men are less ashamed of their crimes than of their failings and of what touches their vanity.
[tr. Stewart (1970)]
Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
Dave Barry (b. 1947) American humorist
“25 Things I Have Learned In 50 Years,” #25 (1997)
Conscience is, in most men, an anticipation of the opinion of others.
Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
The Statesman: An Ironical Treatise on the Art of Succeeding, ch. 9 (1836)
Many would be Cowards if they had Courage enough.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #3366 (1732)
(Source)
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Caesar and Cleopatra, Act 3 [Apollodorus] (1898)
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
(Attributed)
Sometimes cited to her autobiography This is My Story (1937), but not found in that book. It seems to have been inspired by a comment she made in 1935: "A snub is the effort of a person who feels superior to make someone else feel inferior. To do so, he has to find someone who can be made to feel inferior." The quotation was in its present form (and attributed to her) by 1940. More information here.
Ask a question and you’re a fool for three minutes; do not ask a question and you’re a fool for the rest of your life.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Chinese proverb