“Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside,And naked on the Air of Heaven ride,Is it not a Shame--is it not a Shame for himSo long in this Clay suburb to abide!”

“Oh, such a shame, such a shame. Oh, such a shame. What’s it all about anyhow?”“I’ve wondered for a long time.”“But why bring it to me?”“I guess I’m the Black Death,” he said slowly. “I don’t seem to bring people happiness any more.”

“Shame is a soul eating emotion.”

“Why would a man not argue his own shameful culpability, why would he not crave responsibility for disaster, when the alternative was to feel himself to be nothing more than a speck of human dust?”

“That man penetrated me with his shame. Shame, I realize now, is an infectious disease. Shame can be sexually transmitted.”

“A shameful fact about humanity is that some people can be so ugly that no one will be friends with them. It is shameful that humans can be so cruel, and it is shameful that humans can be so ugly.”