"It's not oil that runs the world, it's shame."

Shame, Power, Control, Society

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"It's not oil that runs the world, it's shame."

Exlpore more Shame quotes

"We would not be ashamed of doing some of the things we do in private, if the number of sane human beings who do them in public were large enough."

Mokokoma Mokhonoana, South African Philosopher

Shame, Truth, Humanity, Privacy

"She had wanted me to hold rape inside me like a dark pearl, keep it in there, as it grew, as I grew cramped, as it overtook me as hidden things do. Secrets become lies. I'd carried in every step I took this lie, the shame of it."

Aspen Matis, American Author

Shame, Secrets, Trauma, Truth

"Shame weakens us. It can make us frightened to take on something new. We start to withdraw from whatever might give us pleasure, self-esteem, or a sense of our value."

Sharon Salzberg, American Author

Shame, Fear, Truth, Self-Worth

"Shame comes in different doses."

Carla H. Krueger, American Author

Shame, Emotion, Guilt, Humanity

"I felt ashamed.""But of what? Psyche, they hadn't stripped you naked or anything?""No, no, Maia. Ashamed of looking like a mortal -- of being a mortal.""But how could you help that?""Don't you think the things people are most ashamed of are things they can't help?"

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Shame, Mortality, Appearance, Humanity

"She told me that women who wore makeup had bad values. Putting on makeup would have been a statement-a rebellion. I didn't try it. I grew to feel guilty for wanting to feel attractive."

Aspen Matis, American Author

Shame, Beauty, Rebellion, Gender

"Shame control us and our lives, it makes the choices we just state in spec and watch what's doing... as far as now it goes like a bot... auto!"

Deyth Banger, American Blogger

Shame, Truth, Wisdom, Power, Today

"Ira Gershwin, shame on him. I mean, some of the writing."

Joni Mitchell, Canadian Musician

Shame, Writing

"Most of the groups I worked with 30 years ago are either dead or dead broke. And it's a shame."

Ronnie Spector, American Musician

Shame, Years

"The shame that tormented me was all the more corrosive for having no very clear origin: I didn't know why I felt so tainted, and worthless, and wrong-only that I did, and whenever I looked up from my books I was swamped by slimy waters rushing in from all sides."

Donna Tartt, American Novelist

Shame, Trauma, Pain, Identity

Explore more quotes by Sherman Alexie

"Everyone I have lost in the closing of a doorthe click of the lockis not forgotten, theydo not die but remainwithin the soft edgesof the earth, the ashof house fires and cancerin sin and forgivenesshuddled under old blanketsdreaming their way intomy hands, my heartclosing tight like fists."

Grief

"But my grandmother wanted us to forgive her murderer."

Forgiveness

"If I wasn't writing poems I'd be washing my hands all the time."

Time

"What if someone picks on me?" I askedThen I'll pick on them".What if someone picks my nose?" I asked.The I'll pick your nose, too" Rowdy said."

Friendship

"How much do we remember of what hurts us most? I've been thinking about pain, how each of us constructs our past to justify what we feel now. How each successive pain distorts the preceding."

Pain

"I'm quite aware of my differences. I wouldn't classify them as weird."

Identity

"He was going to punish me now. He couldn't beat me up with his old man fists, but he could hurt me with his old man words."

Abuse

"If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase with each book one reads."

Reading

"Gay people were seen as magical, too. I mean, like in many cultures, men were viewed as warriors and women were viewed as caregivers. But gay people, being both male and female, were seen as both warriors and caregivers. Gay people could do anything. They were like Swiss Army knives!"

Diversity

"Teenagers read millions of books every year. They read for entertainment and for education. They read because of school assignments and pop culture fads."

Education