Shamelessness Quotes

“A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed.”
― Mencius

“Rousseau already observed that this form of government is more accurately an ‘elective aristocracy’ because in practice the people are not in power at all. Instead we’re allowed to decide who holds power over us. It’s also important to realise this model was originally designed to exclude society’s rank and file. Take the American Constitution: historians agree it ‘was intrinsically an aristocratic document designed to check the democratic tendencies of the period’. It was never the American Founding Fathers’ intention for the general populace to play an active role in politics. Even now, though any citizen can run for public office, it’s tough to win an election without access to an aristocratic network of donors and lobbyists. It’s not surprising that American ‘democracy’ exhibits dynastic tendencies—think of the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Bushes.

Time and again we hope for better leaders, but all too often those hopes are dashed. The reason, says Professor Keltner, is that power causes people to lose the kindness and modesty that got them elected, or they never possessed those sterling qualities in the first place. In a hierarchically organised society, the Machiavellis are one step ahead. They have the ultimate secret weapon to defeat their competition.

They’re shameless.”
― Rutger Bregman, De meeste mensen deugen: Een nieuwe geschiedenis van de mens

“Stop holding back those desires you've been too ashamed to admit.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice

“There is no disgrace in being knocked down, there is only shame in not getting back up; never quit!”
― Ken Poirot

“On her [Thérèse's] part she seemed to revel in daring and shamelessness. Not a single moment of hesitation or fear possessed her. She threw herself into adultery with a kind of furious honesty, flouting danger, and as it were, taking pride in doing so.”
― Émile Zola, Thérèse Raquin

“Be wary of someone who has never failed, or seem to have no faults... Too good to be true usually is. Perfection hides something.”
― Henry Cloud

“cause we don't hide,
We parade our pride!”
― Ana Claudia Antunes, Pierrot & Columbine

“Seasons passed by. I always loved to watch the trees in our garden. With the first rain, the leaves would
drench themselves. Slowly they would grow tired of the rain and droop. So would I, grow tired of
waiting for him to look at me, talk to me. Slowly the leaves would dry up, and fall to the ground. It
resembled a naked and shameless woman, trying to woo her husband. And the season would change,
and the leaves would shoot slowly trying to gain the lost vigor. It would start blooming and look in its
best form. The tree would be so overwhelmed by its own beauty that it would call upon the butterfly
and birds. It would make everyone happy. But has anyone wondered how it feels? It feels like me.”
― Ranjani Ramachandran, Fourteen Urban Folklore

“Ashamed to avow my sins,
A burden mine alone to bear,
Broken beyond repair,
Baptized in gold to fill the cracks,
Restless nights, Velour gowns turning to sacks
No amount of gold brings relief,
Debased by lies and deceit,
Beg for forgiveness,
And you shall be forgiven,
He, who knows all, saw underneath my veneer,
A pain, a woe played for deaf ears,
I beseech my lord to forgive my misdeeds abhorred,
Let my midnight scribble turn into beautiful word.”
― Khadidja Megaache, Lurking Shadow

“Honor cultures probably rely too much on shame, but our modern alternative is an epidemic of shamelessness.”
― Tamler Sommers, Why Honor Matters

“How they made
out of shamelessness something
beautiful, for as long as they could.”
― Carl Phillips

“The funny thing about coming out is that it relies on the belief that the information you're keeping about yourself is shameful. If you were raised to be somewhat shameless, it's less of a one-time shock and more like a lifelong rumble.”
― Courtney Trouble, Coming Out Like a Porn Star: Essays on Pornography, Protection, and Privacy

“To lose the sense of repugnance from one thing, or regard for another, is exactly so far as it goes to relapse into the vegetation or to return to the dust.”
― G.K. Chesterton, As I Was Saying: A Chesterton Reader