Chicago Daily News. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Self and Others. The sense of sin as seen through your own eyes, as distinguished from shame, which is the same thing viewed through the eyes of others. A Modern Tribute to Ambrose Bierce, 1986.
People generally bear guilt more easily than a sense of inferiority.
These are substitutes for repentance and renewal. We are all exceptional cases. Each of us insists on being innocent at all cost, even if he has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself. The Fall, tr. Justin O'Brien, 1956.