“Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Quotes about regret
A collection of quotes on the topic of regret, doing, life, time.
Quotes about regret
Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus
Variant: Correct." Kekrops sounded bitter, like he regretted his decision. "My people were the original Athenians--the gemini."
"Like your zodiac sign?" Percy asked. "I'm a Leo."
"No, stupid. "I'm a Leo. You're a Percy.
Source: The Blood of Olympus
“the more I live, the more I regret how little i know”
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Os sentimentos que mais doem, as emoções que mais pungem, são os que são absurdos – a ânsia de coisas impossíveis, precisamente porque são impossíveis, a saudade do que nunca houve, o desejo do que poderia ter sido, a mágoa de não ser outro, a insatisfação da existência do mundo. Todos estes meios tons da consciencia da alma criam em nós uma paisagem dolorida, um eterno sol-pôr do que somos.
The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 196
“The lovely flowers
embarrass me.
They make me regret
I am not a bee…”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
“It's better to have something to remember than anything to regret.”
Frank Zappa book The Real Frank Zappa Book
Source: The Real Frank Zappa Book
“There are no regrets in life, just lessons.”
Jennifer Aniston (1969) television and film actress from the United States
“The only regret I will have in dying is if it is not for love.”
Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera
Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member
Response to the closing question of whether she hadn't "indeed come to the conclusion that your conduct and the actions along with your brother and other persons in the present phase of the war should be seen as a crime against the community, but in particular against our troops fighting arduously in the east, that merits the severest sentence?" in the official examination transcripts (February 1943); Bundesarchiv Berlin, ZC 13267, Bd. 3 http://www.bpb.de/themen/5H3ZT3,3,0,Ausz%FCge_aus_den_Verh%F6rprotokollen_von_Sophie_Scholl.html#art3
“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 1070
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
“Do it or do not do it - you will regret both.”
Sören Kierkegaard book Aut-Aut
Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.
Source: Either/Or
“Whoever sows good shall harvest happiness, and whoever sows evil shall harvest regret.”
Hasan al-Askari (846–874) Eleventh of the Twelve Imams
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 338
Religious Wisdom
E.M.S (1995) Nigerian rapper, singer and record producer
Hidden (2017)
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Italian neurologist
Of the fact that she never married; quoted in Associated Press obituary.
“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
“I love forms beyond my own, and regret the borders between us”
Loren Eiseley (1907–1977) US philosopher (1907-1977)
“We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
“I'd rather look forward and dream, than look backward and regret.”
James Van Praagh (1958) American psychic
Source: Unfinished Business: What the Dead Can Teach Us About Life
Richard Branson (1950) English business magnate, investor and philanthropist
In his interview with Nina Myskow for Saga magazine, July 2007
“It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis must die, so that the country may live.”
Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician
Original French: Je prononce à regret cette fatale vérité... mais Louis doit mourir, parce qu'il faut que la patrie vive. <br class="br"> Speech to the National Convention http://www.royet.org/nea1789-1794/archives/journal_debats/an/1792/convention_1792_12_03.htm on the judgment of Louis XVI (3 December 1792)
Ruslana Koršunova (1987–2008) fashion model
"Model's Web rants pined for love" in Daily News (New York, 29 June 2009) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/06/28/2008-06-28_models_web_rants_pined_for_love.html
Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989) American political and social activist
Closing words from his last speech, Vanderbilt University (April 1989).
Context: In the nineteen-sixties, apartheid was driven out of America. Legal segregation — Jim Crow — ended. We didn't end racism, but we ended legal segregation. We ended the idea that you can send a million soldiers ten thousand miles away to fight in a war that people do not support. We ended the idea that women are second-class citizens. Now, it doesn't matter who sits in the Oval Office. But the big battles that were won in that period of civil war and strife you cannot reverse. We were young, we were reckless, arrogant, silly, headstrong … and we were right! I regret nothing!
“We must live today and never regret about past, which often brings nothing but melancholy. ”
Brigitte Bardot (1934) French model, actor, singer and animal rights activist
Chris Martin (1977) musician, co-founder of Coldplay
http://www.metroguiltypleasures.com/metro/coldplays-chris-martin-is-a-modern-day-shakespeare-says-jay-z/ source
“Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: Unsourced
“Forget Regret, or life is yours to miss”
Jonathan Larson (1960–1996) American composer and playwright
Source: Rent
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
As quoted in Teacher's Treasury of Stories for Every Occasion (1958) by Millard Dale Baughman, p. 69
1950s
“I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
“I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done.”
Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman
Variant: I'd rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not.
Variant: Id rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not done.
“Speak when you are angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.”
Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) Canadian eductor
“Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.”
Arthur Miller The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
Act 1
The Ride Down Mount Morgan (1991)
Source: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
Jonathan Larson (1960–1996) American composer and playwright
Source: Rent (1996)
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: One of the great secrets of life. Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
"Of Power and Time"
Blue Pastures (1995)
“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
"Taming the Bicycle" (1917)
“Regrets are illuminations come too late.”
Joseph Campbell book The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces
“I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Barbara Bush (1925–2018) former First Lady of the United States
Source: Reflections: Life After the White House
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer
The Rubaiyat (1120)
Premchand (1880–1936) Hindi writer
He wrote many of his novels in Hindi on his avowed words, in page=90.
Portrayal of Women in Premchands Stories A Critique
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Attributed to Nietzsche on quotes sites and on social media, the original quotation is from An Introduction to the History of Psychology by B. R. Hergenhahn (2008, page 226) and is the author's summary of Nietzsche's ideas: "The meaning and morality of one's life come from within oneself. Healthy, strong individuals seek self-expansion by experimenting, by living dangerously. Life consists of an almost infinite number of possibilities, and the healthy person (the superman) explores as many of them as possible. Religions or philosophies that teach pity, humility, submissiveness, self-contempt, self-restraint, guilt, or a sense of community are simply incorrect. [...] For Nietzsche, the good life is ever-changing, challenging, devoid of regret, intense, creative, and risky."
Misattributed
Jim Carrey (1962) Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer
Carrey: 'Life Is Too Beautiful': Star Talks About Bouts With Depression And His Spirituality http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/18/60minutes/main656547.shtml 60 Minutes (21 November 2004)
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Ibid., p. 250
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Se eu tivesse escrito o Rei Lear, levaria com remorsos toda a minha vida de depois. Porque essa obra é tão grande, que enormes avultam os seus defeitos, os seus monstruosos defeitos, as coisas até mínimas que estão entre certas cenas e a perfeição possível delas. Não é o sol com manchas; é uma estátua grega partida.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
New England Weather, speech to the New England Society (December 22, 1876)
“Nor can one easily find among many thousands a single man who considers virtue its own reward. The very glory of a good deed, if it lacks reward, affects them not; unrewarded uprightness brings them regret. Nothing but profit is prized.”
Nec facile invenias multis in milibus unum,
virtutem pretium qui putet esse sui.
ipse decor, recte facti si praemia desint,
non movet, et gratis paenitet esse probum.
nil nisi quod prodest carum est.
Ovid book Epistulae ex Ponto
II, iii, 11-15; translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. Variant translation of gratis paenitet esse probum, in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th ed. (1980), p. 114: "It is annoying to be honest to no purpose."
Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters From the Black Sea)
“There's no regret more painful than the regret of things that never were.”
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Ibid., p. 111
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Ah, não há saudades mais dolorosas do que as das coisas que nunca foram!
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
Letter to Oral Roberts in 1972, as quoted in Oral Roberts : An American Life (1985) by David Edwin Harrell, p. 310; later published in How to be a Successful Teenager (1994) by Rick Jones, Ch. 5 : The Secret About Material Things, p. 54; the accuracy of this is disputed in "The Gospel of John Lennon" in This Land Press (7 March 2011) http://thislandpress.com/03/07/2011/the-gospel-of-john-lennon/ <br class="br">Disputed
“All things are possible, … Except the passing of regret.”
David Gemmell book The King Beyond the Gate
Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 20
Amy Winehouse (1983–2011) English singer and songwriter
Back To Black
Song lyrics, Back To Black (2006)
Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
La nôtre [religion] est sans contredit la plus ridicule, la plus absurde, et la plus sanguinaire qui ait jamais infecté le monde.<p>Votre Majesté rendra un service éternel au genre humain en détruisant cette infâme superstition, je ne dis pas chez la canaille, qui n’est pas digne d’être éclairée, et à laquelle tous les jougs sont propres; je dis chez les honnêtes gens, chez les hommes qui pensent, chez ceux qui veulent penser... Je ne m’afflige de toucher à la mort que par mon profond regret de ne vous pas seconder dans cette noble entreprise, la plus belle et la plus respectable qui puisse signaler l’esprit humain. <br class="br">Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), transl. Richard Aldington, letter 156 from Voltaire to Frederick II of Prussia, 5 January 1767 http://perso.orange.fr/dboudin/VOLTAIRE/45/1767/6651.html <br class="br">Often misquoted as "Christianity is...", while in the context, Voltaire was referring specifically to Catholicism. <br class="br">Citas
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
Quote in his letter to Evan Charteris, June 21, 1926; as cited in: Levine, Steven Z. " Monet's Series: Repetition, Obsession http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/778519." October (1986): 65-75. <br class="br">1920 - 1926
Eugene O'Neill Long Day's Journey into Night
Act 4 http://books.google.com/books?id=YI8iwzZhl6AC&q=%22what+the+hell+was+it+I+wanted+to+buy+I+wonder+that+was+worth+well+no+matter+it's+a+late+day+for+regrets%22&pg=PT133#v=onepage <br class="br">Long Day's Journey into Night (1955)
Jodie Marsh (1978) English glamour model and television personality
Interview in The Guardian, 25 January 2006 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jan/25/broadcasting.bigbrother
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
Source: 1910s, Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913), Ch. XI : The Natural Resources of the Nation, p. 386
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works
One of two draft letters (25 July, 1938) written for Stanley Unwin to select as a response to his German publishers inquiry about his ancestry. The other letter refused to answer altogether on his ancestry; since the quoted letter persists, it seems that the other letter was sent.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
“I have only one regret … that I have not worked harder.”
Henry Royce (1863–1933) English engineer, car designer, co-founder of Rolls-Royce
Deathbed assertion, as quoted in Outlook Business, Vol. 3, No. 4 (23 February 2008)
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Letter to Walter Ulbricht, January 7, 1964. Russell would later write, in his autobiography: "The abduction and imprisonment by the East Germans of Brandt, who had survived Hitler's concentration camps, seemed to me so inhuman that I was obliged to return to the East German Government the Carl von Ossietzky medal which it had awarded me. I was impressed by the speed with which Brandt was soon released".
1960s
“I have no regrets except that I wasn't up to keep Randy (Rhoads) from getting on that plane.”
Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter
Guitar World Issue 37, 2000.