Regret Quotes

And maybe one winter it will get too cold and I’ll forget about the summers we once shared. My family portrait mightfold in too, producing the same horrific effect as Jeremy’s: that I, all along, had another sibling who eclipsed and became me—a prosperous sibling, an imposturous sibling, who outgrew a sense of time and place in which the three of us were everything to one another. Then only my blood in the sea could unfold and lead me back out of the origami.

~ Nicholaus Patnaude

For it is now to us itself ancient; and yet its maker was telling of things already old and weighted with regret, and he expended his art in making keen that touch upon the heart which sorrows have that are both poignant and remote.

~ J.r.r. Tolkien

More tears rushed from the depths of her tortured soul. ... The losses piled up.

~ Karen Kingsbury

I thought of all the hardships and people that I had lost in the past few days alone, but, most of all, I thought of how I didn't regret any of it.

~ Shannon A. Thompson

Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,And doth it give me such a sight as this?

~ William Shakespeare

The radiance of this beautiful scene shed a cruel light on every past horror, every insult tolerated, every unspoken retort, every gesture of rejection. Marianne was grieving, and her boundless grief made her regret every moment of cowardice in her life.

~ Nina George

Why did I think that this improvisation could never end? If I had seen that it could, what would I have done differently? What would he?

~ Joan Didion

If I had known what trouble you were bearing;What griefs were in the silence of your face;I would have been more gentle, and more caring,And tried to give you gladness for a space.I would have brought more warmth into the place,If I had known.If I had known what thoughts despairing drew you;(Why do we never try to understand?)I would have lent a little friendship to you,And slipped my hand within your hand,And made your stay more pleasant in the land,If I had known.

~ Mary Carolyn Davies

Diggy wished he could cut sentences out of his head the way he could cut them out of a book, then cut them in half and word by word and letter by letter until they were bits of nothing that drifted from the scissors' edges, gravity not even interested enough to pull them down.

~ Rebecca Petruck

...and then I began to drift, fighting tears. I used to come here with Miriam. Miriam, my heart's desire. What was troubling her this morning? Maybe Kate had reproached her on the phone for leaving me? How dare Kate. Oh yeah? Go for it, my darling. Remind her of what she's missing. No, don't.

~ Mordecai Richler

And then the queen wept with all her heart. Not for the cruel and greedy man who had warred and killed and savaged everywhere he could. But for the boy who had somehow turned into that man, the boy whose gentle hand had comforted her childhood hurts, the boy whose frightened voice had cried out to her at the end of his life, as if he wondered why he had gotten lost inside himself, as if he realized that it was too, too late to get out again.

~ Orson Scott Card

Live Everyday with No Regrets, So you don't Regret it One day.

~ Samer Chidiac

Somehow, the more I get older, and the more I see of people and sadness and illness and everything, the sorrier I get for everyone.

~ Agatha Christie

And she knew that this was the thing that would harm Dionne in the end, not her foolishness but the foolhardy way in which she clung to her own terrible ideas. She knew that this was Avril's undoing, not that she'd made the wrong choices, but that she'd been so unwilling to let anyone in to see the lie of her marriage, this masking was worse than the original mistake. Sixty-three years on this earth has taught Hyacinth that it wasn't so much the mistakes that people made but how flexible they were in the aftermath that made all the difference in how their lives turned out. It was the women who held too tightly to the dream of their husband's fidelity who unraveled, the parents who clasped their children too close who lost them, the me who grieved too deeply the lives they'd wanted and would never have who saw their sadness consume them. Hyacinth worried about Dionne because of her hard way of being in the world, the way she could only see the world through the lens of her own flawed feelings.

~ Naomi Jackson

A life premised upon honest effort and questing for love is bound to generate regret and remorse.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Regret comes in four tones that operate in unison to shape our lives. First, we regret the life that we lived, the decisions we made, the words we said in anger, and enduring the shame wrought from experiencing painful failures in work and love. Secondly, we regret the life we did not live, the opportunities missed, the adventures postponed indefinitely, and the failure to become someone else other than whom we now are. American author Shannon L. Alder said, ‘One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.’ Third, we regret that parts of our life are over; we hang onto nostalgic feelings for the past. When we were young and happy, everything was new, and we had not yet encountered hardship. As we age and encounter painful setbacks, we experience disillusionment and can no longer envision a joyous future. Fourth, we experience bitterness because the world did not prove to be what we hoped or expected it would be.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Sometimes, I feel able to write lines about my life and about how I do feel everyday in such a huge book, but sometimes I either prefer to write one word that describe it or just to say nothing at all.

~ Sarah Keddar

One faerie - and then we were free. Just on more swing of my arm. And maybe one more after that - maybe one more swing, up and inward and into my own heart.

~ Sarah J. Maas

He had a sadness in his eyes that Carrie recognised as regret.

~ Kassandra Cross

There was this movie that I would watch with her all the time, some stupid chick flick, and it had this opening line that would always make her catch her breath. 'I remember it hurt. Looking at her hurt', and I now realize that it was true. Every day I looked at her, it hurt. Hurt so much, because she was dying, and I couldn't help her.

~ Runaway Bunny

You want to know what the saddest part is Tess?” I said, sounding choked up.“What’s that Josh?”I felt my heart constricting as the brutal truth flowed from my lips. “You say she’s mine...but honestly, I don’t think she was ever mine to begin with.

~ Angela Richardson

Rainy, gloomy, drab, sunless day.  There are times when hope seems entirely clouded over, when looking for the blessings in your circumstances feels like trying to catch a ray of sunshine from six feet under.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

I'd rather be called immature in those little moments, than be mature and live the rest of my life with those little regrets.

~ Matti Phyre

You must confront your past. At some time or other you must confront your past. It doesn't flash before your eyes, I knew that, but it's always there. We are our past. There is nothing else, and none of it can be undone.

~ The Fall

For my success I am immensely grateful to God, my parents, my family, my friends, my teachers and to the books I read.

~ Amit Kalantri

As a man gets older, his regrets changes. Especially when he's gotten into the Scotch.

~ Robert Crais

Anger travels faster, conscience is slower! Angers goes ahead to destroy long before conscience lately arrives to regret! Don't try to keep anger just for a while... It destroys before negotiations!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

When resistance closes the door against you, remember that persistence holds the key. Don't give up too early; insist to endure to the end... You will never regret it!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

You may regret for messing up on few occasions, but you need to appreciate the fact that blames don’t clean the mess; they only smear the blame on your face. Make changes!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

There is no harm in trying... Trying improves your skills, enhances your stamina and encourages you to excel. Give it a try... Even in trying moments, keep trying. You will never regret it!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

Regrets won't change anything. Don't Reject yourself. Just Refrain from what you did badly, repent and move on.

~ Israelmore Ayivor

To become greater in anything you can do, prepare to be a rejecter of everything that you cannot do. Neglect whatever activities that do not contribute to your success and you will never regret the path you select!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

You may be tempted to regret being born when you are made to watch the videos of just what you will go through to achieve your dreams... But you are highly likely to wish you can live and live again and again if the size of your purposeful achievements is shown to you! Live on!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

When God's favour and Godly flavour is in you, your haters will taste wisdom and the only thing they can do is to regret ever tasting a sweet thing.

~ Israelmore Ayivor

We don't have to be defined by the things we did or didn't do in our past. Some people allow themselves to be controlled by regret. Maybe it's a regret, maybe it's not. It's merely something that happened. Get over it.

~ Pittacus Lore

There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.

~ Charles Dickens

The world changes too fast. You take your eyes off something that's always been there, and the next minute it's just a memory.

~ Michel Faber

There’s no such thing as yesterday, he thought dully. Memory is just today, happening over and over again, stamped indelibly with regret.

~ Helen Maryles Shankman

I began to curse the past for passing.

~ Mara Rostov

Bad days my memory functions no better than an out-of-focus kaleidoscope, but other days me recall is painfully perfect.

~ Mordecai Richler