"Every contrition for sin is apt to encourage a not quite charitable wish that other people should exhibit a similar contrition"
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Contrition is supposed to be an inward reckoning, but Williams spots the sly social aftertaste: repentance doesn’t always humble us; it can recruit us. The line’s bite comes from how it turns a saintly posture into a temptation. “Every contrition” sounds absolute, almost pastoral, then “apt to encourage” softens it into psychological realism. He’s not calling remorse fake; he’s warning that remorse is fertile ground for a quieter sin - the desire to see others kneel too.
The key phrase is “not quite charitable.” Williams refuses the melodrama of hypocrisy. He names the thing as a near-virtue that curdles: a moral wish that wears the costume of fairness. If I’ve paid a price in shame, why should anyone else get off clean? The subtext is about moral economies - guilt as currency, contrition as proof of payment, and other people’s unrepentance as an intolerable imbalance. It’s penitence with an invoice.
As an editor and religious novelist working in early 20th-century Christian intellectual circles, Williams would have been steeped in a culture that prized self-examination while also policing respectability. His sentence cuts through that double-bind: public moral life depends on visible signs of reform, but the demand for visibility can become vindictive. The irony is surgical: the moment you’re most convinced you’ve learned humility is exactly when you’re most tempted to administer it to others.
The key phrase is “not quite charitable.” Williams refuses the melodrama of hypocrisy. He names the thing as a near-virtue that curdles: a moral wish that wears the costume of fairness. If I’ve paid a price in shame, why should anyone else get off clean? The subtext is about moral economies - guilt as currency, contrition as proof of payment, and other people’s unrepentance as an intolerable imbalance. It’s penitence with an invoice.
As an editor and religious novelist working in early 20th-century Christian intellectual circles, Williams would have been steeped in a culture that prized self-examination while also policing respectability. His sentence cuts through that double-bind: public moral life depends on visible signs of reform, but the demand for visibility can become vindictive. The irony is surgical: the moment you’re most convinced you’ve learned humility is exactly when you’re most tempted to administer it to others.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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