Guilt
Overview
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
al experience that occurs when a person realizes
Understanding
Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object....
or believes
Belief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation. It is closely related to the concept of remorse
Remorse
Remorse is an emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act which they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or violent. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment...
.
"Guilt" is the obligation of a person who has violated a moral standard to bear the sanctions imposed by that moral standard.
Quotations
Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.
Henry Fielding, Amelia (novel)|Amelia (1751), Book III, chapter 11.
He declares himself guilty who justifies himself before accusation.
Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732).
They who feel guilty are afraid, and they who are afraid somehow feel guilty. To the onlooker, too, the fearful seem guilty.
Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind (1954).
Where guilt is, rage and courage both abound.
Ben Jonson, Sejanus His Fall (1602).