Regret Quotes

There were so many places in my time with Rogerson that I wished I could go back to, hitting the stop button at just one moment to stop everything that came after. I had so many If Onlys, but each place I thought to stop meant missing something that came later. I needed it all, in the end, to make my own story find its finish.

~ Sarah Dessen

The most regretful behavior always leaches from a wound to our sanctimonious pride.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Regret swallows broken men whole. Acceptance builds them anew.

~ Sarah Noffke

Any meaning of life derives from amiably accepting our anonymous role in the singular order of the universe. Such gracious reception of life’s turbulences stems from willingly capitulating to whatever fomented experiences life brings us without harboring a disconsolate degree of remorse or regret.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Are you sorry? Do you wish you could do it all again and go off and write novels instead of being a teacher?No. You can’t trade what is for what might have been.

~ Lurlene Mcdaniel

I got to wear blinders all the time so I won't think sideways or in the past.

~ Carson Mccullers

To be a devil isn't so bad; to be a devil that can still see beauty, still remember what it was like to be in the sight of the most holy, now that was an obscenity, and that was what I was.

~ Candice Raquel Lee

You have been given a second chance to start your life over. You can't throw this opportunity away. If you do you will be a colossal fool. If you get the chance to do something and don't do it then you'll simply live with regret. That's a worse situation than trying something daring and maybe not succeeding. At least you tried. Isn't that what you want to show your kids?

~ Lorena Bathey

Never pass up a valuable opportunity, because regret can last a lifetime.

~ Kim Yannayon

If all of our sins, bad habits, and poor choices were permanently inked into our skin like tattoos, we would all dress quite modestly.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Humans are forever discontent—always thinking there are better alternatives to their present circumstances.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Who cares who's right or wrong when the last word is a kind apology?

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Truly there are different kinds of pain.  But the most agonizing is the pain of regret, for which there is no lasting relief and no remedy.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Be not wishing and pining but thankfully content.  For it is a short bridge between wanting and regret.- from Dimpellumpzki

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Time has been given to us as a sacred covenant, that if wasted will haunt us throughout eternity, in the form of regret

~ Steven Redhead

It made him wonder if all things taken from their home too soon lost some of their bloom.

~ Dan Groat

Being a child is such a shining gift, yet we don't know how precious it is until it's worn out and gone away.

~ Storm Constantine

I'll never get over the factthat the buildings all light up at night,and the night comes every nightand without regret we let it go.We sleep a little and we live.That's what we do.

~ Alex Dimitrov

Regret is a waste of time.

~ James Patterson

Starting right now, attempt to live as if you have no regrets.

~ John O'callaghan

Patience takes away lots of stress, regrets, & sleepless nights knowing that all is well at the end of the day if we just wait a little bit.

~ Assegid Habtewold

It is the bungled crime that brings remorse.

~ P.g. Wodehouse

I looked at it [revolver] as if it reminded me of a crime I had committed with an irrepressible smile such as rises sometimes to people’s lips in the face of great catastrophes which are beyond their grasp, the smile that comes at times on certain women’s faces while they are saying they regret the harm they have done. It is the smile of nature quietly and proudly asserting its natural right to kill.

~ Anaïs Nin

Nausea and panic rose in my throat. I had killed a man.

~ A.b. Shepherd

The poker fell from my trembling hands as my entire body shook with reaction. I fell to my knees, pressed my hands to my face and began to sob. What had I done?

~ A.b. Shepherd

Emotionally Strong People ~ Complain a little less, Celebrate a little more; Think a little less, Be a little more; Cringe a little less, Play a little more; Judge a little less, Forgive a little more; Chase a little less, Cherish a little more; Fear a little less, Hope a little more; Regret a little less, Learn a little more; and Fret a little less, Smile a little more.

~ Manprit Kaur

The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable.

~ Oscar Wilde

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Guilt at least has a purpose, it tells us we’ve violated some ethical code. Ditto for remorse. Those feelings are educational, they manufacture wisdom. But regret—regret is useless.

~ Daniel Smith

What I’ve learnt is: buy the damn shoes. Kiss the boy. You can lose a life in indecision, and regret is a waste of an emotion.

~ Kate Lord Brown

Gabe's face flashed into my mind, and I knew that Asher and Gabe had both been right about my feelings. Gabe would do anything to save me, even put his life at risk for mine. He would do all that for a girl who'd never kissed him, or been brave enough to take a chance on him. Suddenly, I regretted that immensely.

~ Corrine Jackson

Was this what she had shattered convention for; broken with her family, her friends? Everything she had ever known; doomed herself to eternal damnation, for the sake of what she had believed would be heaven on earth, and had turned out to be hell, here and now?

~ Fay Weldon

I touched curiosity,I kissed sin, I felt regret,And I was forgiven.But life won't let me forget.

~ J.a. Anum

Those of us who have seen violent death up close, who have seen what high-powered bullets can do to living human tissue, have a horror of inflicting that nightmarish, never forgotten damage on a fellow human being. Perhaps the only more terrifying prospect is that such a fate should befall us or our loved ones. This is why we, a representative cross-section of America's population, keep deadly weapons for personal defense.

~ Massad Ayoob

A meaningful apology is one that communicates three R's: regret, responsibility, and remedy.

~ Beverly Engel

After each dream, Frankie woke with a start, soaked in tears. But she found no relief in the peaceful silence of her room, because there everything was real. And the guilt was too immense to bear. Each time she opened her eyes, she'd quickly shut them. And wish that she had woken up for the very last time.

~ Lisi Harrison

And I know, too, that recognizing one's mistakes does not erase them.

~ Susie Morgenstern

The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner

~ Tallulah Bankhead

The trick, it seems to me, is to stave off regret. That’s what the whole thing is about. And we can’t stave it off forever, because it is impossible not to make the mistakes that let regret in, but the best of us manage to limp on into our sixties or seventies before we succumb. Me, I made it to about thirty-seven, and David made it to the same age, and my brother gave up the ghost even before that. And I’m not sure that there is a cure for regret. I suspect not.

~ Nick Hornby

The first reaction is surely the most natural one, but not always the most correct one; thereupon, the invention of apologies.

~ Criss Jami