"Whether they knew of didn't know is not the main issue; the main issue is whether a man is innocent because he didn't know. (...) by beating himself on the chest and proclaiming, "My conscience is clear! I did not know! I was a believer!" Isn't his "I did not know I was a believer!" at the very root of his irreparable guilt?"

Guilt, Belief, Innocence, Conscience

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"Whether they knew of didn't know is not the main issue; the main issue is whether a man is innocent because he didn't know. (...) by beating himself on the chest and proclaiming, "My conscience is clear! I did not know! I was a believer!" Isn't his "I did not know I was a believer!" at the very root of his irreparable guilt?"

Exlpore more Guilt quotes

"Maybe time would not feel as heavy if I didn't have this guilt - the guilt of knowing the truth and stuffing it down where no one can see it."

Veronica Roth, American Author

Guilt, Truth, Regret, Time

"It was something quite special, that feeling: an oppressive, hideous constraint as if I were sitting with the small ghost of somebody I had just killed."

Vladimir Nabokov, American Novelist

Guilt, Memory, Emotion, Truth

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"

William Shakespeare, English Dramatist

Guilt, Regret, Truth, Power, Life

"A pang of guilt, like a blaring siren, should never be ignored."

Richelle E. Goodrich, American Poet

Guilt, Truth, Wisdom, Life

"At the same time I know that it's not really their fault, at least not completely. I did my part too. I did it on a hundred different days and in a thousand different ways, and I know it. But this makes the anger worse, not better."

Lauren Oliver, American Author

Guilt, Anger, Blame, Responsibility

"How now! Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." Lady Macbeth."

William Shakespeare, English Dramatist

Guilt, Truth, Power, Regret, Life

"Consider guilt like a street sign that warns of rough roads ahead if you don't make a u-turn."

Richelle E. Goodrich, American Poet

Guilt, Regret, Truth, Wisdom, Today

"There is no such thing as collective guilt."

Kurt Waldheim, Austrian Politician

Guilt,

"I had told him I was searching for my keys, that's what had taken me so long in the car, and I squeezed him tighter, as if I could crush my little lie."

Mitch Albom, American Writer

Guilt, Deception, Lie, Trust

"Canon law itself says for one case of guilt, a priest can be dismissed from the clerical state. One."

Roger Mahony, American Clergyman

Guilt, Law, State

Explore more quotes by Milan Kundera

"Damn! What did Ansermet, that most faithful friend, know about Stravinsky's poverty of heart? What did he, that most devoted friend, know about Stravinsky's capacity to love? And where did he get his utter certainty that the heart is ethically superior to the brain? Are not vile acts committed as often with the heart's help as without it? Can't fanatics, with their bloody hands, boast of a high degree of "affective activity"? Will we ever be done with this imbecile sentimental Inquisition, the heart's Reign of Terror?"

Morality

"Tereza knew what happens during the moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice calling forth her terrified soul, the man cannot resist the woman whose soul thus responds to his voice."

Romance

"The novel's spirit is the spirit of complexity. . . . The novel's spirit is the spirity of continuity . . . a thing made to last, to connect the past with the future."

Literature

"The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness."

Happiness

"All the same, a seductive voice from afar kept breaking into her conjugal peace: it was the voice of solitude. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of a hunting horn coming from the depths of distant forests. There were paths in those forests."

Solitude

"It was futile to attack with reason the stout wall of irrational feelings that, as is known, is the stuff of which the female mind is made."

Prejudice

"Given the nature of the human couple, the love of a man and a woman is a priori inferior to that which can exist (at least in the best instances) in the love between man and dog...It is a completely selfless love."

Loyalty

"People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past."

Time

"He yearned to step out of his life the way one steps out of a house into the street."

Escape

"Without much ardor but quite unmistakably, she was writhing her hips as if she were dancing. When he was very close, he saw' her gaping mouth: she was yawning lengthily, insatiably: the great open hole was rocking gently atop die mechanically dancing body. Jean-Marc thought: she's dancing and she's bored.He reached the seawall: down below, on the beach, he saw men with their heads thrown back releasing kites into the air. They were doing it with passion, and Jean-Marc recalled his old theory: there are three kinds of boredom: passive boredom: the girl dancing and yawning; active boredom: kite-lovers; and rebellious boredom: young people burning cars and smashing shop windows."

Boredom