What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story.

There are moments when one is more ashamed of what is called culture than any one can ever be of ignorance.

We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.

Embarrassment is the greatest teacher, but since its lessons are exactly those we have tried hardest to conceal from ourselves, it may teach us, also, to perfect our self-deception.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

There is nothing one fears more or is more ashamed of than not being oneself. Yet few people realize even an approximation of their true potential. Most people must live with varying degrees of the shame and fear of not being fully in control of themselves.

I think that the biggest thing I've learned in terms of pursuing careers is that the things that you're most embarrassed about yourself, the things that you feel like are ugly, the things that you really have a hard time with about yourself, are probably the things that are most beautiful about you and they should be embraced and shared with the world.

Part of being human is being on the verge of disgrace.

As I look back on what I’ve learned about shame, gender, and worthiness, the greatest lesson is this: If we’re going to find our way out of shame and back to each other, vulnerability is the path and courage is the light. To set down those lists of what we’re supposed to be is brave. To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.

To learn what we fear is to learn who we are.

Life has a tendency to obfuscate and bewilder,
Such as fating us to spend the first part of our lives
being embarrassed by our parents and the last part
being embarrassed by our childer.

The fact that you “can’t do” something can be embarrassing. But if you are “learning to do” something, that is admirable. There are only tiny baby steps between can’t and learning.

You learn humility only by accepting humiliations. And you will meet humiliation all through your life. The greatest humiliation is to know that you are nothing. This you come to know when you face God in prayer.

Shame is a secret pride; and pride is an error with regard to one's own worth, and an injustice with regard to what one has a mind to appear to others. (p. 204).