I was not much afraid of punishment, I was only afraid of disgrace. But that I feared more than death, more than crime, more than anything in the world. I should have rejoiced if the earth had swallowed me up and stifled me in the abyss. But my invincible sense of shame prevailed over everything. It was my shame that made me impudent, and the more wickedly I behaved the bolder my fear of confession made me. I saw nothing but the horror of being found out, of being publicly proclaimed, to my face, as a thief, as a liar, and slanderer. JeanJacques Rousseau
Some Similar Quotes
  1. Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike. - Oscar Wilde

  2. The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while not becoming disillusioned - Antonio Gramsci

  3. A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed. - Mencius

  4. Dove la moralità è troppo forte l'intelletto perisce. - Friedrich Nietzsche

  5. My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing, ' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be. - Frank Herbert

More Quotes By JeanJacques Rousseau
  1. Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.

  2. Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it.

  3. It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

  4. To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he...

  5. Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man

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