I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it.

“Can we feel contrition for other people's crimes? Can we feel contrition for crimes we have not committed personally, but have subsequently profited from?…

— Sven Lindqvist

I know California isn't a real destination. You can't get there from New Jersey, not simply by following a line drawn on a map.…

— Kate Braverman

Apologizing is different from begging, it doesn't change your status, go ahead and get on your knees, spill tears if you got it, for…

— Michael Bassey Johnson

Our preaching does not stop with the law. That would lead to wounding without binding up, striking down and not healing, killing and not…

— Martin Luther

“I divested myself of despair and fear when I came here. Now there is no more catching one's own eye in the mirror, there…

— Jane Kenyon

Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul…

— Louis de Montfort

We fancy that our afflictions are sent us directly from above; sometimes we think it in piety and contrition, but oftener in moroseness and…

— Walter Savage Landor

God is not looking for repayment, but repentance. What heals a broken relationship is sincere love and contrition.

— Frederica Mathewes-Green

We in the church have humility and contrition to offer the world, not a formula for success. Almost alone in our success-oriented society, we…

— Philip Yancey

True repentance includes sorrow for sin and contrition of heart. It breaks the heart with sighs and sobs and groans.

— Thomas Brooks

Evil is retributive: every trespass slips fetters on the will, holds the soul in durance till contrition and repentance restore it to liberty.

— Amos Bronson Alcott

“He died, as the Spanish phrase has it, full of illusions. He had not had time in his life to lose any of them,…

— Ernest Hemingway

Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission;…

— Thomas Aquinas

Every contrition for sin is apt to encourage a not quite charitable wish that other people should exhibit a similar contrition.

— Charles Williams

“One moment of prayer, of weak worship, confused contrition, tepid thanksgiving, or pitiful petition will bring us closer to God than all the books…

— Peter Kreeft