A Quote by Harold S. Kushner
It is tempting at one level to believe that bad things happen to people (especially other people) because God is a righteous judge who gives them exactly what they deserve. By believing that we keep the world orderly and understandable.... But [this belief] has a number of serious limitations.... It teaches people to blame themselves. It creates guilt when there is no basis for guilt. And most disturbing of all, it does not even fit the facts.
Quote Topics
Bad
Bad Thing
Bad Things
Bad Things Happen
Basis
Because
Belief
Believe
Believing
Blame
Creates
Deserve
Disturbing
Does
Even
Exactly
Exactly What
Facts
Fit
Gives
God
Guilt
Happen
Judge
Keep
Level
Limitations
Most
Number
Orderly
Other
People
Righteous
Serious
Teaches
Tempting
Them
Themselves
Things
Things Happen
Understandable
World
World Order
Quote Author
Related Quotes
True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is.
Moreover, there is this completely false trial. I would participate wholeheartedly in a trial if it were to determine the guilt for 5 million murdered people and the guilt for the atrocities. But I see in this trial endless other things brought out and I have the feeling that in the shadow of the guilt of these murders the German people shall be considered guilty of everything, and in the shadow of this guilt the Americans, English, French, and especially the Russians will want to get rid of their own dirty linen.
Guilt kept me going. It was impossible not to blame myself for what had happened, but even guilt was a comfort. It was a human feeling, a sign that I was still attached to the same world that other men lived in.
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
Hollywood people are filled with guilt: white guilt, liberal guilt, money guilt. They feel bad that they're so rich, they feel they don't work that much for all that money - and they don't, for the amount of money they make.
Where does guilt and punishment lie, and are we not more expressive over remorse or guilt when other people see the badness in us?
People feel guilty. And guilt is stymieing. Guilt immobilizes. Guilt closes the air ducts and the veins, and makes people ignorant.
There are absolutely almost perfect people who experience no guilt; they don't know what it is. They simply do what they need to do - or want to do - next. They see nothing wrong with it. They feel no guilt. They express no guilt. And it's not even certain what harm they do.
I'm never trying to make a statement about morality ever. If there's a statement to be made, it's "People are complicated. They do things that may hurt other people, or exploit other people, but they may do them for the right reasons, or out of desperation." I don't judge that sort of "bad" behavior. I'm only interested in a world where people break outside of the norm, and I believe people do whatever they have to do to relieve themselves of pain. I just want to watch and see how that plays out.
One of the less attractive aspects of human nature is our tendency to hate the people we haven't treated very well; it's much easier than accepting guilt. If we can convince ourselves that the people we betrayed or enslaved were subhuman monsters in the first place, then our guilt isn't nearly so black as we secretly know that it is. Humans are very, very good at shifting blame and avoiding guilt.
Never feel guilty. Don't hold yourself back by guilt or fear. No other species in the entire world deals with guilt. Guilt is a bizarre emotion that makes you feel bad about decisions that you make.
If we don't forgive ourselves for our mistakes, and others for the wounds they have inflicted upon us, we end up crippled with guilt. And the soul cannot grow under a blanket of guilt, because guilt is isolating, while growth is a gradual process of reconnection to ourselves, to other people, and to a larger whole.
I think it's important for people to know that bad things do happen to good people and that life can throw a serious curveball at even the most cautious and "prepared" people out there.
So the starting point and the basis of their liberal wails of anguish always and always is guilt. Guilt, guilt, guilt.
There's Catholic guilt about things, then there's the guilt of being the youngest of 10, so when nice things happen to you, you're not really allowed to enjoy them.
The human capacity for guilt is such that people can always find ways to blame themselves
Related Authors
Abraham Isaac Kook Quotes
British
Rabbi
Daniel Lapin Quotes
American
Rabbi
Jackie Tabick Quotes
British
Rabbi
Joseph Hertz Quotes
British
Rabbi
Leo Baeck Quotes
German
Rabbi
Rashi Quotes
French
Rabbi
Robert Gordis Quotes
American
Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch Quotes
German
Rabbi
Sherwin Wine Quotes
American
Rabbi
Shmuley Boteach Quotes
American
Rabbi
