"If a sense of guilt weighs down the soul no amount of pleasure on the outside can compensate for the loss of joy on the inside. As sorrow is attendant on sin, so joy is the companion of holiness." Source: Ven. Fulton Sheen, The Way to Happiness
"Some there are who seek to excuse and justify themselves to their own conscience, by assuming readily that others are guilty of the same faults, or as great ones, vainly imagining that the sin becomes less culpable when shared by many." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., [...]
"The remembrance of what Jesus suffered is a cure for remembrance of wrongs, shaming it powerfully with His patient endurance." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
"When we judge our own heart guilty, if we treat it gently, rather in a spirit of pity than anger, encouraging it to amendment, its repentance will be much deeper and more lasting than if stirred up in vehemence and wrath." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., [...]
"If a sense of guilt weighs down the soul no amount of pleasure on the outside can compensate for the loss of joy on the inside. As sorrow is attendant on sin, so joy is the companion of holiness." Source: Ven. Fulton Sheen, The Way to Happiness