Guilt Quotes To Help You Overcome This Emotion And Move Forward

Guilt is a normal human emotion that most of us will feel from time to time. In some cases, it can be warranted and helpful, potentially motivating us to right our wrongs and act more aligned with our values in the future. In others, however, it can be unwarranted and overinflated to the point where it causes significant distress to a person who may be constantly experiencing it. Excessive guilty feelings may sometimes also be linked to mental health conditions like depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or to past experiences of trauma.

If you are experiencing trauma, support is available. Please see our Get Help Now page for more resources.

Cultivating a healthy relationship with guilt so that it can be a tool rather than a source of totally unnecessary distress may help support mental health. Here, we’ve compiled guilt quotes from authors, thinkers, and public figures throughout history to help you put this feeling in perspective. We’ll also discuss information about seeking professional support for personal growth if you feel that excessive guilt is negatively impacting your life.

General quotes about guilt to remind you to keep perspective

The American Psychological Association defines guilt as “a self-conscious emotion characterized by a painful appraisal of having done (or thought) something that is wrong and often by a readiness to take action designed to undo or mitigate this wrong.” Authors, psychologists, and others have described it differently, as in the following quotes that showcase various perspectives on what guilt is:

• "Guilt is the total of all the negative feelings we have had about ourselves, any form of self-hatred, self-rejection, feelings of worthlessness, sinfulness, inferiority, incompetence, failure, or emptiness. The feeling that there are things in us that are lacking or missing or incomplete." –Ken Wapnick

• "Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they're big, flashing signs that something needs to change." –Gretchen Rubin

• "Guilt is always hungry; don't let it consume you." –Terri Guillemets

• "I'm just going to say it: I'm pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it's about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we've done—or failed to do—with our values." –Brené Brown

• "Guilt isn't always a rational thing…Guilt is a weight that will crush you whether you deserve it or not." –Maureen Johnson

• “There's no problem so awful that you can't add some guilt to it and make it even worse.” –Bill Watterson

• “So full of artless jealousy is guilt, it spills itself in fearing to be spilt.” –William Shakespeare

• "Guilt is to the spirit what pain is to the body." –Elder David A. Bednar

• “Guilty feelings about clothes are totally unnecessary. A lot of people earn their living by making clothes, so you should never feel bad.” –Karl Lagerfeld​

• "Guilt is a profoundly conservative emotion and, as such, is not particularly useful for bringing about change. From a position of insecurity and guilt, people do not change or inspire others to change." –Michael Kaufman

Quotes about the consequences of guilt: An “ultimately pointless emotion”?

Again, some level of guilt may help a person make amends for their mistakes as needed and adjust their actions to better align with their moral compass in the future. However, an excessive guilt trip may not be useful and could even cause negative consequences like low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, trouble making decisions, and signs of the stress response. Here are a few guilt quotes that provide other perspectives on the possible effects of this emotion:

• "Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one's own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change, then it can be useful since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge." –Audre Lorde 

• “Guilt is a useless feeling. It's never enough to make you change direction—only enough to make you useless.” –Daniel Nayeri

• "Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt." –Plautus

• "No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now." –Alan Watts

• “There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.” –Oscar Wilde

• "Guilt can prevent us from setting the boundaries that would be in our best interests, and in other people's best interests." –Melody Beattie

• "Guilt is a destructive and ultimately pointless emotion." –Lynn Crilly

• "No matter how frustrated [or] disappointed we may feel in the face of our failures, it's only temporary. And the faster you can stop wallowing in guilt, blame, or resentment, the faster you can put it behind you." –Fabrizio Moreira

• "Guilt upon the conscience, like rust upon iron, both defiles and consumes it, gnawing and creeping into it, as that does which at last eats out the very heart and substance of the metal." –Bishop Robert South

• “And yet, sometimes facts are no more than pitiful consequences, because guilt does not reside in our acts but in the intentions that give rise to our act. Everything turns on our intentions.” –Sándor Márai

• "An unpeaceful mind cannot operate normally." –Watchman Nee

• "Guilt is the worst enemy of true happiness and self-esteem. It is indeed the worst thing you can ever do to your soul." –Pamela Baron Waldbauer

• "No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it." –Stefan Zweig

Quotes about moving on from all the negative feelings related to guilt

Whether your guilt is warranted or not, forgiving yourself and moving on is usually important for mental health and well-being. This can be easier said than done, but these quotes may provide inspiration:

• "There is no sense in punishing your future for the mistakes of your past. Forgive yourself, grow from it, and then let it go." –Melanie Koulouris

• "To heal, we must first forgive… and sometimes the person we must forgive is ourselves." –Mila Bron

• "The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward." –Dr. Steve Maraboli

• "If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete." –Jack Kornfield

• "Moving on doesn't mean you forget about things. It just means you have to accept what happened and continue living." –Unknown

• “Maybe there's more we all could have done, but we just have to let the guilt remind us to do better next time.” –Veronica Roth

• "I did a lot of things that I regretted, and I certainly paid for my mistakes. You have to go and ask for forgiveness, and it wasn't until I started doing good and doing right, by other people as well as myself, that I started to feel that guilt go away. So I don't have a problem going to sleep at night." –Mark Wahlberg

• "The guilt you feel finally comes to an end when you fully express how it came into your consciousness." –Luke Garner

• "Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt." –Saint Augustine

• "Lack of forgiveness causes almost all of our self-sabotaging behavior." –Mark Victor Hansen

• "Mistakes are part of life. Everyone makes them. Everyone regrets them. But some learn from them, and some end up making them again. It's up to you to decide if you'll use your mistake to your advantage." –Meredith Sapp

• "Dwelling on past bad decisions you've made only allows those decisions to keep defining you. Forgive yourself and move on." –Mandy Hale

• "Don't be so damn hard on yourself. Yeah, you screwed up. You're not perfect, fine. Learn from it. But don't punish yourself. Be kind to yourself, even when you screw up. You'll bounce back eventually. You'll make up for it." –Stephanie Klein

• "When thinking about life, remember this: No amount of guilt can solve the past, and no amount of anxiety can change the future." –Unknown

Quotes about life after working through guilt 

Hope can be a powerful tool for those who are in the thick of guilty feelings. Remembering that it is possible to self-forgive and find joy and peace again can be a powerful motivator to keep going, as these quotes reflect:

• "An exciting and inspiring future awaits you beyond the noise in your mind, beyond the guilt, doubt, fear, shame, insecurity, and heaviness of the past you carry around." –Debbie Ford

• "Forgiveness takes the burden of hate, guilt, and bitterness off your back and, with a lighter load, you can climb higher and faster, and be much happier in the process." –Unknown

• "The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done, we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change so that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear, or anger but wisdom, understanding, and love." –Jennifer Edwards

• "There is a certain degree of satisfaction in having the courage to admit one's errors. It not only clears up the air of guilt and defensiveness but often helps solve the problem created by the error." –Dale Carnegie

• "Your past mistakes are meant to guide you, not define you." –Unknown

• "Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future." –Oscar Wilde

• "Guilt can either hold you back from growing, or it can show you what you need to shift in your life." –Unknown

• "The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence." –Unknown

Potential benefits of therapy if you’re grappling with feeling like a guilty person

Guilt can be a heavy and painful emotion to carry, so reaching out for support in managing it can make a significant difference. Talk therapy, for example, can provide you with a safe space to discuss your emotions openly and work with a provider to uncover and address the root causes of guilt and its effects on your well-being. They can also help you learn healthy strategies for coping with feelings of guilt when they arise. In other words, over time, therapy may help save people from unnecessary feelings of guilt so they can live more balanced lives.

While in-person therapy used to be the only option for receiving this type of care, online options now exist as well. Those who have few therapists in their area or who would prefer to avoid commuting to appointments may be interested in the virtual format. With an online therapy platform like BetterHelp, you can get matched with a licensed therapist who you can meet with via phone, video call, and/or in-app messaging from anywhere you have an internet connection. Research suggests that online therapy can be as effective as in-person care in many cases.