Mortifying Quotes & Sayings

I might, indeed, read history; but whenever I attempt to do so, I am to tell you the truth, driven from it by disgust - What is it, but a miserably mortifying detail of crimes and follies? - of the guilt of a few, and the sufferings of many, while almost every page offers an argument in favor of what I never will believe - that heaven created the human race only to destroy itself. — Charlotte Turner Smith

-when he thinks of the starry-eyed puerility and narcissism of these fantasies now, a rough decade later, Schmidt experiences a kind of full-framed internal wince, that type of embarrassment-before-self that makes our most mortifying memories objects of fascination and repulsion at once, though in Terry Schmidt's case a certain amount of introspection and psychotherapy had enabled him to understand that his professional fantasies were not in the main all that unique, that a large percentage I bright young men and women locate the impetus behind their career choice in the belief that they are fundamentally different from the common run of man, unique and in certain crucial ways superior, more as it were central, meaningful
what else could explain the fact that they can and will make a difference in their chosen field simply by the fact that thy themselves have been at the exact center of all they've experienced for the whole 20 years of their conscious lives? — David Foster Wallace

They got into fact checking at the 'Paris Review,' and it was mortifying. There was a wrangle about Hemingway's lost stories that nearly killed me. It turns out he didn't lose those stories. They weren't stolen from the platform. — Padgett Powell

I don't know. There's just something kind of mortifying to me about the intensity of those feelings. I remember them so clearly. — Becky Albertalli

I get to the bottom of why I'm so upset. When I do, it's almost too Mortifying to admit. All this months of taking it for granted that Peeta thought I was wonderful are over. Finally, he can see me for who I really am. Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly. — Suzanne Collins

I put the photo in an album called Mortifying Emotional Moments, and I title it Soggy Napkin Note. The last selfie I posted in there was of me on the day I graduated college. My perfectly made up face is happy ... relieved. I called that one: Sallie Mae Can Suck It. — Tarryn Fisher

The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice. — Charles Lamb

Offensive, no. Mortifying, yes. — Laurie Alice Eakes

Some, too, will not leave for His sake a place which is to their taste, expecting to receive all the sweetness of God fully in their heart without moving a step, without mortifying themselves by the abandonment of a single pleasure or useless delight. — San Juan De La Cruz

What is most mortifying of all is that it is chance - simply a barbarous, lagging chance. That is what is mortifying! Five minutes, only five minutes too late! Had I come five minutes earlier, the moment would have passed away like a cloud, and it would never have entered her head again. And it would have ended by her understanding it all. But now again empty rooms, and me alone. Here the pendulum is ticking; it does not care, it has no pity... There is no one - that's the misery of it! — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I can smell arousal, Talin. You get hot every time you see me half-naked."
The erotic need that flared through her body was mortifying. Perhaps that explained the stupidity of her next words. "Maybe I get that way for every half-naked man. — Nalini Singh

It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness. — Edith Wharton

Gaudium is what I dream of: to enjoy a lifelong pleasure. But being unable to accede to Gaudium, from which I am separated by a thousand obstacles, I dream of falling back on Laetitia: if I could manage to confine myself to the lively pleasures the other affords me, without contaminating them, mortifying them by the anxiety which serves as their hinge? If I could take an anthological view of the amorous relation? If I were to understand, initially, that a great preoccupation does not include moments of pure pleasure, and then, if I managed systematically to forget the zones of alarm which separate these moments of pleasure? If I could be dazed, inconsistent? — Roland Barthes

By mortifying vanity we do ourselves no good. It is the want of interest in our life which produces it; by filling up that want of interest in our life we can alone remedy it. — Florence Nightingale

a county with a unique history of people starving and mortifying themselves for higher causes and principles, a political reflex that has twitched steadily down the years and seems rooted in some aggravated sense of sinfulness because, like no other county it is blistered with shrines and grottoes and prayer houses and hermitages just as it is crossed with pilgrim paths and penitential ways — Mike McCormack

Sometimes the things that come out of my mouth are mortifying. — Natasha Lyonne

Oh, Genevieve. He was so adorable. I wanted to kiss him. Right on his big, beautiful nose. And then everywhere else. It was so frustrating. I had made my mind up to not lose my temper, but I did. And so I beat him and beat him until he kissed me. And then I kept on beating him until he did it properly. And I had better tell you, mortifying as it is to admit, that if we had not been struck by lightning - or very nearly - I should be utterly ruined. Against a lamppost. On the Rue de Provence. And the horrible part is" - she groaned - "I wish I had been."
"I know," Genevieve said soothingly. "Believe me, dear, I know. — Loretta Chase

Amazing, then, how with that one remark, he made a mortifying situation thirteen times worse. — Tessa Dare

To think that all in me of which my father would have felt proper pride had I been a man, is deeply mortifying to him because I am a woman. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Why must this be so mortifying? Oh, that's right. Because its my life. — Tessa Dare

It can be exalting to belong to a church that is five hundred years behind the times and sublimely indifferent to fashion; it is mortifying to belong to a church that is five minutes behind the times, huffing and puffing to catch up. — Joseph Sobran

I've danced one time in my life. It was the most mortifying experience I ever had. — Billy Bob Thornton

If you have nothing of the spirit of prayer, nothing of the love of the brotherhood, nothing of mortifying the spirit of the world, nothing of growth in grace, of cordial, habitual, persevering obedience to the Divine commands, how can it be that you have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ? — Gardiner Spring

The idea of doing theatre always terrified me because I get terrible stage fright. In the early 1970s I was offered a panto but the thought of going on stage was just too mortifying. — Britt Ekland

I confess freely to you, I could never look long upon a monkey, without very mortifying reflections. — William Congreve

I remember being a kid and seeing the 'National Inquirer' at the grocery store checkout line. When somebody actually picked up a copy, it was mortifying. You felt dirty for them. But now it's perfectly acceptable to read something like that. There's absolutely no taboo surrounding that kind of exploitation. — Rashida Jones

I never wanted to be the guy people looked at. I don't think of myself as being a celebrity; it's too mortifying. — Johnny Depp

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done. — Samuel Johnson

The theater itself is so archaic and old fashioned, that it doesn't really matter to me whether it's on Avenue D or at the Helen Hayes Theater. What's the difference? It's still a very nostalgic form. Also, it means you're knowingly walking into a room where there's actors. I feel it's very embarrassing. Because, you know, they're right there. You always think like, they can see you, and I think it's mortifying, frankly, and I hate to sit near the front, where you feel they actually might see you. It's too ... it's too live. — Fran Lebowitz

Jessica frowned at her. "It was very difficult to keep a straight face - but that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part was - " She let out a sigh. "Oh, Genevieve. He was so adorable. I wanted to kiss him. Right on his big, beautiful nose. And then everywhere else. It was so frustrating. I had made up my mind not to lose my temper, but I did. And so I beat him and beat him until he kissed me. And then I kept on beating him until he did it properly. And I had better tell you, mortifying as it is to admit, that if we had not been struck by lightning - or very nearly - I should be utterly ruined. Against a lamppost. On the Rue de Provence. And the horrible part is" - she groaned - "I wish I had been. — Loretta Chase

There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean "the foolish face of praise," the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved but moved, by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face, with the most disagreeable sensation. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mortifying the deeds of the body cannot be understood of the religious deeds of the body, for they are to be cherished, nor of the natural deeds of the body such as eating and drinking; but it refers to the sinful actions that are done by the body arising from the temptations and injections of Satan or the corrupt dictates of our own sinful heart. — Christopher Love

Let therefore this PURE LOVE OF CHRIST prompt thee to all that is good; let this be the motive of mortifying thy flesh with all its desires: and let the remembrance of that death which he most willingly accepted for thee, make thee willing to lay down thy life for him; and out of sincere gratitude for all his inestimable benefits, to accept the cross at his hand, and to resist sin and the world even unto blood. — Johann Arndt

He grins. "Sweetheart, you wouldn't know what to do with my dick even if you tried."
"I most certainly would!" I blurt out, unable to help myself. I regret my words immediately.
There's one hell of a long, mortifying second as he slowly raises his dark brow, a twinkle in his eye. "Oh really?" he muses, smile dancing on his lips. — Karina Halle

The general idiocy of mankind is such that they can be swayed by words, and however mortifying, for the present you have to accept the fact as you accept it in the cinema that a film to be a success must have a happy ending. — W. Somerset Maugham

Shit on your whole mortifying, imaginary, and symbolic theater! — Gilles Deleuze

Do you have any idea how mortifying this is?'
Her brothers stared at her, quite rightly, in Phillip's opinion, as if she'd gone mad.
'You lost the right,' Anthony bit off, 'to feel mortified, embarrassed, chagrined, or in fact any emotion other than blindingly stupid when you ran off without a word. — Julia Quinn

Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. — Jane Austen

The moment the door closed behind him, Tessa was in Will's arms, her hands locked about his neck. "Oh, by the Angel," she said. "That was mortifying."
Will slid his hands into her hair and was kissing her, kissing her eyelids and her cheeks and then her mouth, quickly but with fervor and concentration, as if nothing could be more important. "Listen to you," he said. "You said 'by the angel.' Like a Shadowhunter." He kissed the side of her mouth. "I love you. God, I love you. I waited so long to say it. — Cassandra Clare

Do you have any idea how mortifying it is to have your own mother standing up in front of everybody, drawing pictures of penises? — Diana Gabaldon

The subject of a piece of writing has not suffered the tension and anxiety endured by the subject of the "Eichmann experiment" (as it has been called) - on the contrary, he has been on a sort of narcissist's holiday during the period of interviews - but when the moment of peripeteia comes, he is confronted with the same mortifying spectacle of himself flunking a test of character he did not know he was taking. — Janet Malcolm

It is indeed a mortifying reflection to those who are actuated by the love of fame, so justly denominated the last infirmity of noble minds, that the wisest legislator and most exalted genius that ever reformed or enlightened the world can never expect such tributes of praise as are lavished on the memory of pretended saints, whose whole conduct was probably to the last degree odious or contemptible, and whose industry was entirely directed to the pursuit of objects pernicious to mankind. It is only a conqueror, a personage no less entitled to our hatred, who can pretend to the attainment of equal renown and glory. — David Hume

Twelve years ago you decided what I deserved, and I ended up alone. So this time I will decide what I deserve." Ignoring a twinge of self-consciousness, she faced him and began to undo the front fastenings of her pelisse-robe. "And I deserve this. I deserve you."
His breathing grew labored as he stared at her hands with a searing intensity. "What are you doing, Jane?"
"What does it look like?" She slid out of her gown and let it fall to the floor, leaving her standing before him in only her petticoats, corset, and shift. "I'm seducing you."
Dom's eyes narrowed on her, and she panicked. Was she being too bold? Too shameless?
Too daft?
She was daft, to be standing half-dressed like this in a stable, when all it would take was a groom coming down from his room above to turn this into the most mortifying night of her life. — Sabrina Jeffries

I couldn't believe I just blurted all that out. I let my head fall forward until I could bury my overheated face in his shoulder.
"This is mortifying."
His shoulders shook beneath my hands, and when he spoke, the laughter tinged his voice.
"Babe, look at me."
"No." I wiggled deeper into his arms. "I'm staying here until I die. And if I keep spilling my guts to you, that should happen in about two point two seconds when I drop dead of embarrassment. — Amy Lamont

I never get to the end of mortifying sin because sin in my heart, where it's still marauding even though it's no longer dominant, sin in my heart is constantly expressing itself in new disorderly desires. — J.I. Packer

Oh Florence, Florence, patroness
of the lovely tyrannicides!
Where the tower of the Old Palace
pierces the sky
like a hypodermic needle,
Perseus, David and Judith,
lords and ladies of the Blood,
Greek demi-gods of the Cross,
rise sword in hand
above the unshaven
formless decapitation
of the monsters, tubs of guts,
mortifying chunks for the pack.
Pity the monsters!
Pity the monsters!
Perhaps, one always took the wrong side -
Ah, to have known, to have loved
too many David and Judiths!
My heart bleeds for the monster.
I have seen the Gorgon.
The erotic terror
of her helpless, big-bosomed body
lay like slop.
Wall-eyed, staring the despot to stone,
her severed head swung
like a lantern in the victor's hand. — Robert Lowell

The wise and the good never form the majority of any large society and it seldom happens that their measures are uniformly adopted ... [All that wise and good men can do is] to persevere in doing their duty to their country and leave the consequences to him who made men only; neither elated by success, however great, nor discouraged by disappointments however frequent or mortifying. — John Jay

It is a mortifying truth, and ought to teach the wisest of us humility, that many of the most valuable discoveries have been the result of chance rather than of contemplation, and of accident rather than of design. — Charles Caleb Colton

What is there within the Bible?"
"It is a dangerous question. We might do better not to come too near this burning bush. For we are sure to betray what is - behind us! The Bible gives to every man and every era such answers to your questions as they deserve. We shall always find in it as much as we seek and no more: high and divine content if it is high and divine content that we seek; transitory and "historical" content, if transitory and "historical" content that we seek. Nothing whatever, if it is nothing whatever that we seek. The hungry are satisfied by it, and to the satisfied it is surfeiting before they have opened it. The question, "What is in the Bible?" has a mortifying way of converting itself into the opposing question, "Well, what are you looking for, and who are you, pray, who make bold to look? — Karl Barth

DAWN, n. The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it. — Ambrose Bierce

Maybe some find that so, but Joseph Sobran better expresses my feelings: "It can be exalting to belong to a church that is five hundred years behind the times and sublimely indifferent to fashion; it is mortifying to belong to a church that is five minutes behind the times, huffing and puffing to catch up."1 — Charles W. Colson

Although experience has taught me to trust my feelings, I did not go inside to stand guard near her. She had asked me to wait on the bench. I had no intention of crossing her. Like most men, I find it mortifying to be ass-kicked by a woman who doesn't even weigh 110 pounds after Thanksgiving dinner. — Dean Koontz

If we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. — Anonymous

Confession is the God-given remedy for self-deception and self-indulgence. When we confess our sins before a brother-Christian, we are mortifying the pride of the flesh and delivering it up to shame and death through Christ. Then through the word of absolution we rise as new men, utterly dependent on the mercy of God. Confession is thus a genuine part of the life of the saints, and one of the gifts of grace. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Souls who can recognize God in the most trivial, the most grievous and the most mortifying things that happen to them in their lives, honor everything equally with delight and rejoicing, and welcome with open arms what others dread and avoid. — Jean-Pierre De Caussade

It was mortifying to find how strong the habit of idle speech may become in one's self. One need not always be saying something in this noisy world. — Sarah Orne Jewett

If the question is: what's more mortifying than professing your love to a boy and having him turn and walk away from you? The answer is: professing your love to a boy, while standing in front of your friends, parents and a hundred strangers, and having him turn and walk away from you. — Autumn Doughton

But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. (6.12) — Jane Austen

You know what else is adorable? When I can clearly see you having a furious discussion in your own head."
"That's visible?"
Oh, God, how mortifying.
"Kit, you practically mouth the words."
"I do not," I protest, but now I'm not so sure. No one's ever said this to me before. I was always certain that my silence was taken for a lack of things to say, instead of the opposite: sometimes, there are so many things I want to say that they overwhelm me. I've got years of unsaid conversations in my head. — Charlotte Stein

I don't think of myself as being a celebrity, it's too mortifying. I have a hard time watching myself on screen and it's getting worse. I can't tell whether my work is good or not. — Johnny Depp

It was like making a blunder at a party; there was nothing to do about it, it was dreadfully mortifying, but it showed a lack of sense to ascribe too much importance to it. — W. Somerset Maugham

My work is to love my body, all of it. Whole and entire. The whole aging mortal troublesome failing miraculous intricate breathing doomed cancerous warm mortifying unreliable hard-working imperfect beautiful appalling living struggling tender frightened frightening living dying living breathing temporary wondrous mystifying afflicted mortally-ill assemblage of the atoms of the universe that is my self, is me, for this space of time. — Irvin D. Yalom

Even though one is well advanced in virtue, should he stop mortifying himself, he soon would lose his modesty and virtue - just as fertile soul quickly becomes dry and arid and produces nothing but thorns and thistles if it is not cultivated. — John Climacus

I famously stole tons of VHS tapes from a video store I worked in. It was detailed in my special, Laboring Under Delusions. I worked at Tower Video and stole a bunch of videotapes from them, and then got caught and had to return the videotapes. It was a mortifying experience. — Paul F. Tompkins

She brought out the first-aid kit - ever-efficient Summerset - and sat to tend the wounds. "Jesus, I really went at you. That's bad enough, but scratching and biting like a girl. It's mortifying."
"You got a couple of punches in, if it makes you feel better."
"I'm a crappy person, because it does a little."
"Rang my bell once."
"And still a little more." She looked up at him. "Do you ever wonder who the hell we are, that somehow we'll be okay that I bloodied you?"
"We're exactly who we're supposed to be."
"I don't know what I'd do if you weren't who you're supposed to be with me. I just don't know."
"I wouldn't be, without you. — J.D. Robb

She felt herself redden. "Because, if you want to date me, I don't know how," she admitted. "I haven't dated anyone since university and that wasn't even proper dating. Tom took me out to dinner once. We were students; we couldn't afford to go to restaurants, so it was usually fish and chips, or a burger. I don't know how to date properly, Robert. I've never been out with a man your age and it's mortifying to have to admit it. That's why I take the easy way out and run. And, apart from that, your ex-girlfriend was everything I'm not. — Lorna Peel

You must be jesting. What happened down there is one of the most mortifying moments of my life. Why on earth would I point it out to you if you'd forgotten all about it?" His eyes widened. "Forgotten about it? Forgotten about it? Sweetheart, I have replayed those moments in my mind a hundred times, at least. — Deeanne Gist

Think your mother will let me drive you to school tomorrow? Now that we're all friends and united by a belief in the careful use of contraception?"
My cheeks burn, the memory of my mother's mortifying behavior distracting me for a moment. "Yes," I mumble. "I think so. — Stacey Jay

Never mind. Little girls shouldn't ask questions,' returned Jo sharply.
Now if there is anything mortifying to our feelings when we are young, it is to be told that; and to be bidden to 'run away, dear' is still more trying to us. — Louisa May Alcott

Let us read the lives of the saints; let us consider the penances which they performed, and blush to be so effeminate and so fearful of mortifying our flesh. — Alphonsus Liguori

Ritzonia" was the epithet coined by Bernard Bernson, who sold Italian pictures to American millionaires, to describe the unreal, mortifying sameness of their luxury. "Ritzonia," he wrote in 1909, "carries its inmates like a wishing carpet from place to place, the same people, the same meals, the same music. Within its walls you might be at Peking or Prague or Paris or London and you would never know where. — Richard Davenport-Hines

What Congress and the popular sentiment approve is rarely defeated by reason of constitutional objections. I trust the measure will turn out well. It is a great relief to me. Defeat in this way, after a full and public hearing before this [Electoral] Commission, is not mortifying in any degree, and success will be in all respects more satisfactory. — Rutherford B. Hayes

If there's anything more mortifying than being famous at 14, it's being washed up right after. — Moon Unit Zappa

Sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures ... — John Owen

There is nothing so mortifying as to fall in love with someone who does not share one's sentiments. — Georgette Heyer

It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire.
(Jane Austen) — Jane Austen

It is really mortifying, sir, when a woman possessed of a common share of understanding considers the difference of education between the male and female sex, even in those families where education is attended to ... Nay why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one day intend for companions and associates. Pardon me, sir, if I cannot help sometimes suspecting that this neglect arises in some measure from an ungenerous jealousy of rivals near the throne. — Abigail Adams

Behold not Death's Heads til thou doest not see them, nor look upon mortifying objects til thou overlook'st them. — John Connolly

It is a mortifying circumstance, which greatly perplexes many a painstaking philosopher, that nature often refuses to second his most profound and elaborate efforts; so that often after having invented one of the most ingenious and natural theories imaginable, she will have the perverseness to act directly in the teeth of his system, and flatly contradict his most favorite positions. This is a manifest and unmerited grievance, since it throws the censure of the vulgar and unlearned entirely upon the philosopher; whereas the fault is not to be ascribed to his theory, which is unquestionably correct, but to the waywardness of Dame Nature, who, with the proverbial fickleness of her sex, is continually indulging in coquetries and caprices, and seems really to take pleasure in violating all philosophic rules, and jilting the most learned and indefatigable of her adorers. — Washington Irving

Who knows better than artists how much ugliness there is on the way to beauty, how many ghastly, mortifying missteps, how many days of granitic blockheadedness and dismaying ineptitude there is on the way to accomplishment, how partial all accomplishment is, how incomplete? — Tony Kushner

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree? — Logan Pearsall Smith

Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin is to neglect that excellent succor which God has given us against our greatest enemy. If we neglect to make use of what we have received, God may justly hold his hand from giving us more. His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who has furnished us with a principle of doing it. — John Owen

When the new heart given to us through Jesus Christ in the New Covenant becomes corrupt, it is because of a stronghold that has been established and the root is bringing forth its corruption, and not because of sin springing up within it intrinsically (Ezekiel 11:19-20; 36:26-27; II Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 4:6; Romans 5:5). Scripturally, I am convinced there is nothing in the regenerate heart of the New Covenant believer that produces sin, for the old man Adamic geyser of corruption was slain with Christ on Calvary (Romans 6:6). The desires of the flesh, however, still live. The flesh has been hopelessly conditioned in Adam and is conducive to the satanic attraction of the world's system (Ephesians 2:2). It is God's decree therefore that we collaborate with Him in the mortifying of its affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:5; Romans 7:18; 8:13; 13:14). — Paul West

Shall we go away whenever life looks like turning in the slightest uncanny, or not quite normal, or even rather painful and mortifying? No, surely not. Rather stay and look matters in the face, brave them out; perhaps precisely in so doing lies a lesson for us to learn. — Thomas Mann

There is a sort of enthusiasm in all projectors, absolutely necessary for their affairs, which makes them proof against the most fatiguing delays, the most mortifying disappointments, the most shocking insults; and, what is severer than all, the presumptuous judgement of the ignorant upon their designs. — Edmund Burke

The causes of his embitterment were many, remote and near. He was angry with himself for being young and the prey of restless foolish impulses, angry also with the change of fortune which was reshaping the world about him into a vision of squalor and insincerity. Yet his anger lent nothing to the vision. He chronicled with patience what he saw, detaching himself from it and tasting its mortifying flavour in secret. — James Joyce

I should never conclude were I to speak to you of all the misfortunes which have their origin in the faulty carriage of the body. All these defects, mortifying for those who have contracted them, cannot be remedied except in their early stages. A habit born in childhood is strengthened in youth, becomes deeply rooted in adulthood and is incurable in old age. — Jean-Georges Noverre

It is Mortifying to suppose it possible that a people able and zealous to contend with the Enemy should be reduced to fold their Arms for want of the means of defence; yet no resources that we know of, ensure us against this event. — Thomas Jefferson

is only one thing more mortifying than having an exclamation mark removed by an editor: an exclamation mark added in. — Lynne Truss

The most mortifying fact of my life is something that happened when I was fourteen and I have never admitted to anyone: not to friends nor therapists; not even in rehab when we were detailing our own personal spirals of shame did I confess. It is this: I am a graduate of the Barbizon School of Modeling. — Augusten Burroughs

I find this mortifying to admit, but I have one of those balls that helps my posture. They're hard to sit on, so it stops me from sitting too long ... I also wear a pair of 3M(TM) PELTOR(TM) Optime(TM) II Ear Muffs. They're the same ones that people wear on the tarmac among the planes - noise blockers. — Claire Cameron

Helen, don't."
"I thought it was only a misunderstanding. I thought if I spoke to you directly, everything would be s-sorted out, and - " Another sob choked her. She was so consumed by emotion that she was only vaguely aware of Rhys hovering around her, reaching for her and snatching his hands back.
"No. Don't cry. For God's sake, Helen - "
"I didn't mean to push you away. I didn't know what to do. How can I make you want me again?"
She expected a jeering reply, or perhaps even a pitying one. The last thing she expected was his shaken murmur.
"I do want you, cariad. I want you too damned much."
She blinked at him through a bewildered blur, breathing in mortifying hiccups, like a child. In the next moment, he had hauled her firmly against him.
"Hush, now." His voice dropped to a deeper octave, a brush of dark velvet against her ears. "Hush, bychan, little one, my dove. Nothing is worth your tears."
"You are. — Lisa Kleypas

Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the base suspicion of ignorance. — Lord Chesterfield

When one has looked upon Jesus, though he be of little stature like Zacchaeus of old (cf. Lk. 19:3), and climb up on the top of the sycamore tree by mortifying his members which are upon the earth (cf. Col. 3:5), and having risen above the body of humiliation, then he shall receive the Word, and it shall be said to him, This day has salvation come to this house (cf. Lk. 19:9). Then let him lay hold on the salvation, and bring forth fruit more perfectly, scattering and pouring forth rightly that which as a publican he wrongly gathered. — Gregory Of Nazianzus

It was beyond embarrassing or humiliating or even mortifying. It was ego-slaying! — Wendelin Van Draanen