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Gnawing Quotes

Quotes on feelings that won't let go

Gnawing shows up less as a physical bite here and more as an emotional one — guilt eating at a conscience, a bad mood chewing away underneath a calm surface. It's the word writers reach for when something small keeps working at the edges of a mind.

The irony is that the people we tend to vote for actually look down on voters and voting. That's just idiotic, right? That's like a snake eating its own tail! A wolf in a trap gnawing off its own head...

Quotes by Steven Weber

I'm not one to sit and wallow - I would rather figure out a way around so I can move past it and be at peace with things. I don't like bad feelings gnawing away at me.

Quotes by Sarah McLachlan

Guilt upon the conscience, like rust upon iron, both defiles and consumes it, gnawing and creeping into it, as that does which at last eats out the very heart and substance of the metal.

Quotes by Robert South

'Borderlands' came out of nowhere to appease the gnawing hunger left behind with the dearth of quality dungeon crawlers on the market.

Quotes by Rob Manuel

Age Quotes

We have our moments of emotional vulnerabilities as any other human being, and my greatest fear gnawing away at me is losing my loved ones.

Quotes by Parineeti Chopra

Positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression, and, as we age, to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die.

Quotes by Martin Seligman

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The only thing that matters is to have charm and expression. Then comes that horrible gnawing doubt of our own magnetism. Is it possible that, though we are not lovely, we are not irresistible either? That we will have to...

Quotes by Elizabeth Bibesco

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

Quotes by Edmund Burke

Appease Quotes

In the same way, there is some creature gnawing away inside of me, urging me to do things in different ways.

Quotes by Dylan Moran

Mike Tyson notoriously looked for a way out against Evander Holyfield when it was clear Holyfield had his number. Suddenly, Tyson's cowardice in gnawing off Holyfield's ear overshadowed nearly everything he had accomplished as a fighter.

Quotes by Brin-Jonathan Butler

The rat stops gnawing in the wood, the dungeon walls withdraw, the weight is lifted your pulse steadies and the sun has found your heart, the day was not bad, the season has not been bad, there is sense and...

Quotes by Bernard DeVoto

The fate of nations is intimately bound up with their powers of reproduction. All nations and all empires first felt decadence gnawing at them when their birth rate fell off.

Quotes by Benito Mussolini

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Gnawing quotes page cover?
These are quotes that use gnawing as a metaphor for something slow, persistent, and hard to shake, whether it's guilt, regret, self-inflicted trouble, or a nagging bad feeling. The imagery is deliberately uncomfortable, which is part of why it resonates.
Why would someone share a quote about a gnawing feeling?
People often reach for this kind of quote when words alone feel too plain to describe a low-grade anxiety or guilt that won't go away. A vivid metaphor like this can express that discomfort more precisely than a direct statement would.
Is there a quote that compares self-destructive behavior to a trapped animal?
Yes, one quote compares people voting against their own interests to a wolf gnawing off its own leg to escape a trap, and to a snake devouring its own tail. It's a sharp, almost darkly comic way of describing self-sabotage.
Are any of these quotes about guilt specifically?
One classic quote compares guilt on the conscience to rust eating into iron, describing it as something that gnaws and creeps until it consumes a person from within. It sits well alongside quotes on regret or conscience if you're curating around that theme.
Do these quotes connect gnawing to getting older?
Yes, one line ties the gnawing feeling to aging, describing the slow realization that life can become mere fidgeting while waiting for the end if character and positive emotion drift apart. Readers browsing our Age quotes may find this one a fitting, more introspective addition.

That gnawing sense sometimes sharpens with Age, as one quote puts it, or tangles with plain Bad feelings nobody has found a way to shake off yet.