Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Shaw suggests feeling shame about oneself indicates a higher standard of respectability.
In plain terms
If you feel ashamed of some things, you are more respectable.
What can you take from it?
Acknowledging flaws shows moral self-awareness.

Where it applies

  • self-reflection
  • moral judgment
  • public life

Putting it to work

  • reflect on flaws
  • value humility
  • judge character

Questions to consider

  • What shame is useful?
  • How is respect earned?

Another view

Excessive shame can be unhealthy rather than a sign of respect.

More from George Bernard Shaw

  1. A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

    Permalink to quote #61
  2. The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.

    Permalink to quote #63
  3. Bunyan's perception that righteousness is filthy rags, his scorn for Mr Legality in the village of Morality, his defiance of the Church as the supplanter of re…

    Permalink to quote #60

Related quotes

  1. Blushing is the colour of virtue.

    Matthew HenryMatthew Henry quote #5
  2. Le scelerat a ses vertus, comme l'honnete homme a ses faiblesses.

    Pierre Choderlos de LaclosPierre Choderlos de Laclos quote #5
  3. Best they honor thee Who honor in thee only what is best.

    William WatsonWilliam Watson quote #5