guilty (adj.)

Guilty consciences always make people cowards.

Pilpay: The Prince and his Minister. Chap. iii. Fable iii.

Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a duty.

Ulysses S Grant (1822-1885): Indorsement of a Letter relating to the Whiskey Ring, July 29, 1875.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;

The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VI. Part III. Act v. Sc. 6.

1 Clo. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

2 Clo. But is this law?

1 Clo. Ay, marry, is 't; crowner's quest law.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.

The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since; but I think now 't is not to be found.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 2.

And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.

Those obstinate questionings

Of sense and outward things,

Fallings from us, vanishings,

Blank misgivings of a creature

Moving about in worlds not realized,

High instincts before which our mortal nature

Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 9.

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,

Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold;

His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore,

Search not his bottom, but survey his shore.

Sir John Denham (1615-1668): Cooper's Hill. Line 165.

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