moral regret Quotes

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

He who repents of having sinned is almost innocent.

The greatest chastisement that a man may receive who hath outraged another, is to have done the outrage; and there is no man who is so rudely punished as he that is subject to the whip of his own repentance.

Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment.

I never dreamed of any enormity greater than I have committed. I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.

As in the infirmity of human nature, no man's actions are always what he likes to look back upon, as there are points in which he would wish that he had acted otherwise; so every man who tells his own story is under a temptation more or less to disguise the truth; and the more in proportion as his actions have been upon a larger scale, and his faults or mistakes therefore have been more flagrant.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.

Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.

They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy evil, that they may no longer have have it to regret.

I've done things in the media I was not only not proud of, I was ashamed of.

I willingly took John Lennon's life. What I did was despicable.

Nothing spoils a confession like repentance.

A nation that turns it back on Christ and God's words of truth will inevitably regret it.

True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive.

Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.

Throughout your life there may be times when you have gone places you never should have gone and done things you never should have done. If you will turn away from sin, you will be able one day to know the peace that comes from following the pathway of complete repentance.

There's shames a man can never reason away, though he looks back and piles up reasons over them forty dozen deep. And maybe those are the shames a man never should reason away.

Repentance is the vomit of the soul.

...how little our side of the industry did to move its business to the more ethical firms and to make a fuss about conflicted or unethical behavior. Had a number of us moved our business, we might have slowed or even stopped the 30-year slide in conflicted, unethical behavior that we have experienced. I, for one, regret the modest nature of our moves. We all could have done more. We have tolerated a pretty nasty decline in standards. Shame on us.

If there be a pleasure on earth which angels cannot enjoy, and which they might almost envy man the possession of, it is the power of relieving distress--if there be a pain which devils might pity man for enduring, it is the death-bed reflection that we have possessed the power of doing good, but that we have abused and perverted it to purposes of ill.

Remorse is sorrow over being caught and the pain of consequences that follow. Repentance is not being concerned for ourselves but having a contrite heart.

Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.

We are more inclined to regret our virtues than our vices; but only the very honest will admit this.

There is a time in every life when paths are chosen, character is forged. I could have chosen a different path. But I didn’t. I failed myself.