This was not guilt: guilt is what you feel when you have done something wrong. What I felt was shame: I was what was wrong.

I felt a sense of shame like a burning ulcer. This was not guilt: guilt is what you feel when you have done something wrong. What I felt was shame: I was what was wrong.

When I feel ashamed, it means I feel there isn’t just something wrong with what I’ve done, there is something wrong with who I am. Shame is often a hidden emotion and it can be paralyzing in its power.

Shame I do feel. And I know there is something all wrong about me — believe me. Sometimes I shock myself.

I...regret...what I did. It was wrong. Very wrong. But regret is meaningless.

To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a source of pride. Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.

I would rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not

I'd rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not.

I'd rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not.

I regret everything. But if I had done things differently, it would never have been as compelling.

"Are you ashamed of having done a right thing once in your life?"

"Ah: Sir — consider I live by the Badness of my Character! — I have nothing but my Infamy to depend on! — and, if it were once known that I had been betray'd into an honest Action, I should lose every Friend I have in the world."

I'd rather regret the things I have done than the things that I haven't.

But I myself do not think I cannot make mistakes - I am too conscious of my many errors to be able to say this or that is the right manner and this or that, the wrong one. That goes without saying. But I am not indifferent, I think it wrong to be so. I think it one’s duty to try to do the right thing, even knowing that one cannot go through life without making mistakes, without regret or sorrow. Somewhere I read, Some good must come by clinging to the right.

My ignorance was inexcusable, and it made me ashamed.