"You feel guilty about everything."
"When we all lived in huts and wore furs, we worried over the simple things - food, water, whether animals would come and eat us in the night. Now we have supermarkets, bottled water and .38 caliber home security. So what keeps us awake at night? More often than not, guilt. If only I had acted differently... If only I hadn't said that... If only I had said something..."
"You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself; blame the world. Blame God. Blame me."
— Dr. Kaufmann, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
"'You know, you really would make a good hero,' he said casually, as if he was continuing a conversation. 'Playing the blame game and losing every time is an integral part of the job.'"
— Kid Flash to Jinx, Life on the Offbeat by Re-Ane, a Teen Titans fanfiction
Shao Kahn: You burn with guilt, don't you?
Raiden: For the pain I have caused others, yes.
Shao Kahn: Compassion is for fools!
Neville: Do you have to do literally anything anyone asks you?
Harry: Do? No. Feel guilty about not doing? Yes. [...] Every time someone cries out in prayer and I can't answer, I feel guilty about not being God.
"Stupid conscience. I wish I could just give it up with a few magic words and live the rest of my life with no problems."
Mulder: I felt responsible for your death.
Deep Throat: You can let that go. Clearly, I'm alive.
Mulder: I thought that you died for my quest.
Deep Throat: Yes, along with Scully's sister and the man you thought was your father and Duane Barry and even Scully's mysterious illness and on and on and on. You can let go of all that guilt. I'm here to tell you that you're not the hub of the universe, the cause of life and death. We— you and I— we're... merely puppets in a master plan. No more, no less. You've suffered enough. Now you should enjoy your life.
— The X-Files, "The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati"
His sister died in a fire while she was baby-sitting him. She tried to put it out, he ran outside. He went off campaigning, his father died. He wakes up in a hospital and discovers the President's been shot. He goes through every day worried that somebody he likes is going to die, and it's going to be his fault. What do you think makes him walk so fast? [walks towards some file cabinets] Anyway, when you looked at the list of replacements and said, "That's a windfall," what he heard was "Thank you Josh, you did it again. More for us."
— Donna Moss, The West Wing, "Commencement"
If I truly started to enjoy myself, the guilt would probably drive me home.
— Spider-Man, Hooky
WHY!? Why am I allowed to live while good men pay for my crimes!? Is there no justice in this world!? Please, someone tell me. How do I make it stop? What will it take to end the horror, to ensure that he is the last? Is suicide the only answer? Is a merciful death, an easy death, truly to be my fate? But what about my punishment? I'm supposed to suffer! Look! Look at the blood on my hands! Has it not earned me torment!? If not... If there is no force in this world that will destroy me for my sins... Then what hope is there? What hope for the good? For those who struggle to be kind and just? Their lives had meaning! Their lives had worth! And I ended that. I stole their future! Please. Someone, anyone. Don't let their good mean nothing.
— Kageaki Minato, Full Metal Daemon Muramasa
