A confession is a statement made by a person acknowledging some personal fact that the person would prefer to keep hidden. The term is generally associated with an admission of a moral or legal wrong. A legal confession is an admission of some wrongdoing that has legal consequence, while a confession in religion is usually more akin to a ritual by which the person acknowledges thoughts or actions considered sinful or morally wrong within the confines of the confessor's religion. Socially, however, the term may refer to admissions that are neither legally nor religiously significant. For example, a person might "confess" to their peer group that they enjoy a particular reality TV show, or that they ate the last piece of cheesecake.
The term derives from "something (“ion”) spoken (“fess”) in the presence of or with (“con”) someone else".
Famous quotes containing the word confession:
“Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“Truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit towards which endless investigation would tend to bring scientific belief, which concordance the abstract statement may possess by virtue of the confession of its inaccuracy and one-sidedness, and this confession is an essential ingredient of truth.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)