“The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, prophane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame, or blame…”

“For we all of us, grave or light, get our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of them.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

“The secret of happiness is having the freedom to express a full range of emotions without guilt or shame.”

Ralph Smart

“Shame on the man who goes to his grave escorted by the miserable hopes that have kept him alive.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

“The secret is to make sure the business is running to perfection, with or without me.”

Gordon Ramsay (1966) British chef, writer and TV presenter

“Morally, it is wrong to suppose the source of evil is outside oneself, that one is a vessel of holiness running over with virtue. Such a disposition is the best soil for a hateful and cruel fanaticism. It is as wrong to impute every wickedness to Jews, Freemasons, "intellectuals," as it is to blame all crimes on the bourgeoisie, the nobility, and the powers that were. No; the root of evil is in me as well, and I must take my share of the responsibility and the blame. That was true before the revolution and it is true still.”

Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) Russian philosopher

“Perfectionism is a shield that we carry with a thought process that says this, 'If I look perfect, live perfect, work perfect, and do it all perfectly, I can avoid or minimize feeling shame, blame, and judgement.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

“Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.”

Mae West (1893–1980) American actress and sex symbol

“From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the secrets to be discovered are so paltry and few.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

“I shall be as secret as the grave.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright