If nothing bad happens, it is a good day. We do not suffer by accident. What creature but a madman would not rather do good than ill, when it is plain that, good or ill, it must return upon himself.  If the human mind is not actively good, it will generally be actively evil. Ryan was not much changed. The man had the devil in his heart. That is all. There were sins whose fascination was more in the memory than in the doing of them, strange triumphs that gratified the pride more than the passions, and gave to them intellect a quickened sense of joy, greater than any joy they brought, or could ever bring to the senses. Good actions are remembered but for a day: bad ones for many years after the life of the guilty. It is seldom that a bad person expects to be accounted good. It is the general desire of such a one to conquer the existing evil impression; but it is generally presumed that the evil impression is there. I am not sure why you guys would want to remind me of the bad deeds he did, I know he is wrong, but it takes me back to a very dark and lonely place, at least when I was pretending he was a good person, I felt better. Nonetheless, all the evil things he did were still in my mind and unresolved. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

You can always tell if a person feels bad about the harm they caused if they show remorse. Ignorance and prejudice are the only real evils. Sin is never in season; and—alas!—it is never out of season when the devil is the master. Remorse is posited to serve a restitutive function in relationships and, as such, appears always within a relational setting. Remorse derives its essential character from the relationship which it seeks to restore. The presentation of remorse may reflect a genuine outpouring of concern for the estranged or may be a hollow semblance, a dramatic gesture enacted to restore the functions served within the relationship. The meaning of the display of remorse is not found in its appearance but rather emanates from the essential character of the relationship. The remorseful person, in particular, presents an individual seeking to heal estrangement. The initial engagement between people reflects their budding capabilities for meaningful interaction. Throughout their lives human beings seek relationships and the companionship and comfort of others as their existences unfold. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

Relating with others is prompted therefore not only be the demand for somatic satiation but also for emotional, interpersonal sustainment. Relationality emanates from within an interpersonal as well as somatic context. Estrangement throughout the life cycle affects the individual in often dramatic ways. Disturbances within relationships may create psychological trauma and threaten the existence of an individual and may establish a pattern of disturbed interpersonal relations; and may lead to an ontological orientation of emptiness and despair, a chronic and painful sense of nothingness. Through intentional or unintentional behaviors individuals affect the others with whom they relate. The actions either further the development of intimacy or lead to estrangement. When you hurt someone over and over and try to make them feel sorry for you so they do not leave you, that is abuse, especially when you do not express remorse. The experience of remorse may be seen as the attempt of the individual to reconcile an estrangement which their actions have wrought within a relationship. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

Are not foul streams often traced to pure fountains? Remorse is not born out of concern or regard for the other and is enacted to quell the anxiety and guilt over one’s actions or sympathy for the other in light of doing someone wrong. However, even if a person shows remorse, it vanishes, never to be referred to again. This is typified in a clinical report of such an individual who remarked upon hearing of his wife’s death, “Who shall make my dinner now?” This comment was genuine in that it characterized the essential nature of the relationship, one restricted to the maintenance of his existence. After he was assured that someone would provide this function, that is, preparing his meals, his remorse over his deeds towards his deceased wife ended. Remorse in this context is a façade which makes the indifference toward the other and the self-absorbed nature of the relationship. Remorse may be viewed as the means by which the individual seeks to entice the other to restore the functions the other provided. Even persons who have bad hearts will have a veneration for those who have good ones. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

The essence of all good and all evil is in us, not out of us. Remorse within the interpersonal context reveals an individual’s desire and intention for relationship with another. Empathy with the estranged other, which by definition appears within interpersonal setting, summons the experience of guilt. Guilt as the affective response to the know or belief that one has injured or estranged another calls forth remorse. Within a healthy interpersonal relationship, a remorseful person declares the injury that has been committed upon the other, acknowledges the value of the relationship, and seeks understanding and reconciliation in an attempt to restore the relationship. In such a relationship, the other is affirmed as a person and the restoration of the relationship is based on an appreciation of its value for each individual. In the interpersonal setting of neurosis, remorse may appear as the desperate attempt to maintain a relationship. This, however, is not out of concern for the other as person, but rather is motivated by the desire to continue the relationship as it serves a symbolic restitutive function.  #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

In a relationship where you are just using someone for a benefit they provide and keep hurting them over and over and showing remorse to keep receiving that benefit, in such a relationship, the other is not acknowledged for who he or she is, but rather valued in functioning as proxy for the esteemed love object with whom the individual experienced estrangement. The aim is not to restore an authentic relationship, but rather to maintain the neurotic gratification and to avoid further narcissistic injury or guilt. Similarly, remorse may be elicited by events or actions which are experienced as injurious within a neurotic context. Also, if you keep abusing a person and they keep forgiving you because they feel sorry for you or you show remorse, at some point you have to realize a walk in the park is not going to restore your relationship because over this years you have developed a pattern of offending and then doing the same things to express remorse and you expect to be forgiven. However, a rational person will realize that you are just going to hurt them again, and a simple walk in the park is not going to be enough. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

If someone is important to you, then you treat them with respect and dignity. However, if you are just using the person for some benefit they provide, then you need to be honest with yourself and that individual and provide them with some kind of monetary benefit because experience tells us that after you hurt someone over and over and use and abuse them that their feelings for you will vamoose. And even if they just try to pretend that you are a good person for the sake of the situation, people who care for them are going to remind them that you are a bad person because they do not want to see you continually using, abusing, and hurting someone. And if you do not have true concern for the individual’s life that you keep devastating, you really should leave them alone because people have ended their lives when someone they cared kept abusing them. When remorse is aimed at restoring gratifying functions in a relationship with the motivation being based upon relating with the other person, then you acknowledge to some extent the value of the other person and have empathy with their experience. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

However, if you are just using a person for some benefit, good, or service, then you need to establish a business relationship and pay them for whatever it is you want from them and stop exploiting that individual and emotionally abusing them. The implications of your actions upon one’s existence need to be acknowledged and felt. In facing the existential consequences of one’s actions, the abusive individual learns about the nature of the self and becomes informed about the meaning of his or her actions. Remorse includes an affective as well as intellectual acknowledgement of estrangement. The affective response to one’s injurious behavior is guilt. Guilt occurs when someone injuries another person. Within the Godly setting, guilt acknowledges the injury to the essence of the self as a co-creator of the human order and remorse address the reconciliation within the human community. Guilt is not necessarily due to the fact that the individual wills what is wrong, but it comes into being in the attempt to take the task of existence seriously, or rather: it is discovered in this attempt. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

A false prophet ruins the minds of the servants of God. It is the doubters, not the faith, that he ruins. These doubters then go to him as to a soothsayer, and inquire him what will happen to them; and he, the false prophet, not having the power of a Divine Spirit in him, answers them according to their inquires, and according to their wicked desires, and fills their souls with expectations, according to their own wishes. For being himself empty, he gives empty answers to empty inquirers; for every answer is made to the emptiness of man. Some true words he does occasionally utter, for the devil fills him with his own spirit, in the hope that he may be able to overcome some of the righteous. As many, then, as are strong in faith of the Lord, and are clothed with truth, have no connection with such spirits, but keep away from them; but as many as are of doubtful minds and frequent repent, betake themselves to soothsaying, even as the heathen, and bring greater sin upon themselves by their idolatry. For one who inquires of a false prophet in regard to any action is an idolater, and devoid of the truth, and foolish. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

Jesus Christ urges us to keep our minds filled with the concept of God’s control over everything, which means that a disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek. Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. God is my Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so why should I worry? Belief in God is a miracle produced only by the effectiveness of redemption, not by impressive speech, nor by wooing and persuading, but only by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher. There is nothing miraculous or mysterious about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain; consequently, it is only nature to seek an explanation for everything. If one rules another by saying, “You must do this,” and “You will do that,” he breaks the human spirit making it unfit for God. A person is simply a slave for obeying, unless behind his obedience is the recognition of a holy God. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10