
“If I could do it all again, I'd be a plumber.”
Mobutu to his national security advisor, Honoré Ngbanda, "the Terminator". Meredith, p. 532
“If I could do it all again, I'd be a plumber.”
You Are, co-written with Brenda Harvey Richie.
Song lyrics, Lionel Richie (1982)
a remark to George Riviere, (c. 1910); as quoted in Renoir – his life and work, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 230
after 1900
“I think if I had my life to live over again, I'd do things a little different.”
Statement made in 1961, as quoted in Voices from Cooperstown : Baseball's Hall of Famers Tell It Like It Was (1998) by Anthony J. Connor, p. 286
Context: I think if I had my life to live over again, I'd do things a little different. I was aggressive, perhaps too aggressive. Maybe I went too far. I always had to be right in any argument I was in, I always had to be first in everything. I do indeed think I would have done some things different. And if I had I believe I would have had more friends.
“I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed but all I could do was to get drunk again.”
“I'd fly. I sit and watch the birds go by and say, I wish I could do that.”
Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" in 2002 http://web.archive.org/web/20060324131358/http://www.teenpeople.com/teenpeople/2002/25hottest/profile/profile_kreuk.html
“You could do with a day's work, I'd say.”
To a man in Athlone who had lost his job in the recession after being self-employed for 29 years.
Enda Kenny To Protester: “You Could Do With A Day’s Work, I’d Say.” http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/05/15/enda-kenny-to-protester-you-could-do-with-a-days-work-id-say/ Broadsheet, 2012-05-15.
Taoiseach's jibe at Athlone protester http://www.westmeathindependent.ie/news/roundup/articles/2012/05/14/4010403-taoiseachs-jibe-at-athlone-protester/ Westmeath Independent, 2012-05-14.
2010s