References to overcoming embarrassment
October 26, 2011 5:26 AM Subscribe
Do you know any quotes and/or well-known books about overcoming embarrassment?
In an essay about overcoming extremely embarrassing situations and moving on, I need to mention either some famous quotes or refer to something in literature about the same topic. Everyone I ask seems to draw a blank. I would prefer something from a well-known book, but will settle for less if it works. I am not looking for a self-help book.
In an essay about overcoming extremely embarrassing situations and moving on, I need to mention either some famous quotes or refer to something in literature about the same topic. Everyone I ask seems to draw a blank. I would prefer something from a well-known book, but will settle for less if it works. I am not looking for a self-help book.
"Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame" is a collection of essays on this subject.
Stephen King's "On Writing" also has a couple of apt passages--one about never wiping your butt with poison ivy ("A boy who once wiped his ass with poison ivy probably doesn't belong in a smart people's club."), and another about being sat on and farted at by his babysitter as being great preparation for being criticized in print ("In many ways, Eula-Beulah prepare me for literary criticism. After having a two-hundred pound babysitter fart on your face and yell Pow!, The Village Voice holds few terrors.")--that might suit.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:03 AM on October 26, 2011
Stephen King's "On Writing" also has a couple of apt passages--one about never wiping your butt with poison ivy ("A boy who once wiped his ass with poison ivy probably doesn't belong in a smart people's club."), and another about being sat on and farted at by his babysitter as being great preparation for being criticized in print ("In many ways, Eula-Beulah prepare me for literary criticism. After having a two-hundred pound babysitter fart on your face and yell Pow!, The Village Voice holds few terrors.")--that might suit.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:03 AM on October 26, 2011
Best answer: The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate.
Douglas Engelbart
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
Mark Twain
posted by 2manyusernames at 6:42 AM on October 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Douglas Engelbart
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
Mark Twain
posted by 2manyusernames at 6:42 AM on October 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
There's always the Monty Python skit, "Are you embarrassed easily?"
posted by namewithoutwords at 8:45 AM on October 26, 2011
posted by namewithoutwords at 8:45 AM on October 26, 2011
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
posted by bryon at 9:29 AM on October 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
posted by bryon at 9:29 AM on October 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
These are rather general inspirational-uplift, but may be relevant...
"The best way out is always through." Robert Frost
"Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat." Ralph Ellison
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing." George Bernard Shaw
"What I like about experience is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have decieved yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it." C.S. Lewis
"The depths of the sea are only water after all." Virginia Woolf
posted by quarked at 7:30 PM on October 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
"The best way out is always through." Robert Frost
"Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat." Ralph Ellison
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing." George Bernard Shaw
"What I like about experience is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have decieved yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it." C.S. Lewis
"The depths of the sea are only water after all." Virginia Woolf
posted by quarked at 7:30 PM on October 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
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posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:02 AM on October 26, 2011