Quotes about regret
page 3

“Not that he regretted having killed the guy in Stockton. The one who'd been ready to shoot him over the five crumpled dollar bills in his jeans pocket. He was quite happy to have sent that particular home boy to hell.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Visions

Happiness, Guy, Home, Boy

“How is it right to slip free of an old skin and walk away from the scene of the crime? We came, we saw, we took away and we left behind, we must be allowed our anguish and our regrets.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

“It took turns that people couldn’t foresee or even understand, leaving a long trail of regret in its wake. And almost always, those regrets led to the kinds of what if questions that could never be answered.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

Source: The Best of Me

People, Understanding, Question

“Both she and I have grief enough and trouble enough, but as for regrets – neither of us have any.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

“Oh, how I regret not having worn a bikini for the entire year I was twenty-six. If anyone young is reading this, go, right this minute, put on a bikini, and don’t take it off until you’re thirty-four.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Nora Ephron: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, Random House Incorporated, 2008
Source: I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

Reading

“And I had no regrets about the way I turned out. Regrets about the journey, maybe, but not about the destination.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Variant: I knew my father had done the best he could, and I had no regrets about the way I'd turned out. Regrets about journey, maybe, but not the destination.
Source: Dear John

Way

“I lost nothing I regret losing," Witch said softly. "I am what I want to be.”

Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer

Source: Dreams Made Flesh

“Words spoken cannot be recalled, and many a man and many a woman who has spoken a word at once regretted, are far too proud to express that regret.”

Anthony Trollope book He Knew He Was Right

Source: He Knew He Was Right

“I don't think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

Source: Doctor Zhivago

Love, Life, People, Beauty

“… I begin with songs. They provide a sort of skeleton grammar for me to flesh out. Songs of longing for future tense, songs of regret for past tense, and songs of love for present tense.”

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

Source: The Sparrow

Love, Past, Future

“Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the goodness
Be wasted forever.

Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the return
Be never.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Source: Selected Poems

Love

“He felt a momentary pang of regret that he had not spent more time with his beloved wife. But it passed when he remembered that the reason he’d gone to sea in the first place was that he had never really liked his beloved wife.”

Dave Barry book Peter and the Starcatchers

Source: Peter and the Starcatchers

Time, Sea

“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Life, Night

“The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

Night

“I'm not a very nostalgic person. I don't really look at the past and summon up regrets, or self-congratulations, it just is not a mechanism that operates very strongly in me. So I neither have regrets nor occasions for self-congratulations.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Past, Personality

“I can say I made a lot of mistakes, but I don't regret things. Because at least I didn't spend a life standing outside, wondering what living would be like.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Life

“The Suicide, as she is falling,
Illuminated by the moon,
Regrets her act, and finds appalling
The thought she will be dead so soon.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Suicide, Dead

“I did have regrets these past six months,” he told me quietly. “I found it a curse as much as a blessing, all that time to think. About the things I could have said, that I should have told you . . .”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Tempt the Stars

Thinking, Time, Past

“Our lives are marked and shaped by our regrets. Things we all want to take back and can’t. In a perfect world, we would never hurt the ones we love or cause hurt to befall them. But the world isn’t perfect and neither are we.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Styxx

Love, World, Hurt, Perfection

“What does it mean to regret when you have no choice? It's what you can bear. And there it is… It was death. I chose life.”

Michael Cunningham book The Hours

Source: The Hours

Life, Death

“I want an infinitely blank book and the rest of time…
… why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time, my greatest regret is how much I believed in the future.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

Books, Learning, Time, Future

“Having regrets is the only sign that you’ve done anything interesting with your life.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Secrets of a Summer Night

Life

“Many times in life I've regretted the things I've said without thinking. But I've never regretted the things I said nearly as much as the words I left unspoken.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Life, Thinking, Time

“Percy grunted. “Believe me, some days I regret the choice. Oh, you want to turn down our offer? Okay, fine! ZAP! Lose your memory! Go to Tartarus!”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Memory

“For the best part of 40 years she had genuinely believed that not doing things would somehow prevent regret, when, of course, the exact opposite was true.”

Nick Hornby book Juliet, Naked

Source: Juliet, Naked

Parting

“Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience.”

Eleanor Hibbert (1906–1993) English novelist

Motivational

“It's regrets that make painful memories. When I was crazy I did everything just right.”

Mark Vonnegut (1947) American physician and writer

Source: The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity

Pain, Memory

“Dancing was the only activity he enjoyed with a woman, and he regretted that court dancing was no longer in vogue. If you want to bed a woman, do it in the bedroom. If you want to seduce her, do it in the dance.”

Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer

Source: Daughter of the Blood

Dance

“I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

People, Moving On

“I don't regret the painful times; I bare my scars as if they were medals.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Pain, Time

“There are two kinds of sorry. There is the sorry imbued with regret. And a pure sorry. The kind that is merely asking for forgiveness, nothing more.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Love the One You're With

Forgiveness

“For a well-made cup of coffee is the proper beginning to an idle day. Its aroma is beguiling, its taste is sweet; yet it leaves behind only bitterness and regret. In that, it resembles, surely, the pleasures of love.”

Anthony Capella (1962) British writer

Source: The Various Flavours Of Coffee

Love, Pleasure, Coffee

“Heartbreak could be lived with if it weren't accompanied by regret.”

Laura Kasischke (1961) American writer

Source: The Raising

“Pack a pillow and blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book The Namesake

Source: The Namesake

World

“Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)

Life, Parting

“What good is regret? It brings back nothing. What we have lost is irretrievable.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“it is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

Source: The Letters of Machiavelli

“… no one who has passed through the storm has ever regretted the journey. No one stands here and wishes to go back to the other side.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

“It is better to believe in men too rashly, and regret, than believe too meanly. Men could be more than they are, if they would try for it. He has shown them that.”

Mary Renault book The Persian Boy

On Alexander the Great, p. 312
Source: The Persian Boy (1972)
Context: It is better to believe in men too rashly, and regret, than believe too meanly. Men could be more than they are, if they would try for it. He has shown them that. How many have tried, because of him? Not only those I have seen; there will be men to come. Those who look in mankind only for their own littleness, and make them believe in that, kill more than he ever will in all his wars.

Men

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Time, Back To Work

“If there is one regret that I have had in my life, it is that I never fathered any children. There are times, when I look at what Fergus and Beryl have produced, when I consider myself fortunate, but there are also times when it breaks my heart.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Life, Children, Time, Heart

“I love the life you've always made so sweet for me and I'd regret it if I had to die.'
'Do you mean to say that if I left you---'
'I'd die, yes.'
'Then you love me?”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Love, Life

“I did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I can’t. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Hope

“We are all unkind from time to time. We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Variant: We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds.
Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Change, Time, Parting

“Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter moves home to take care of her sick father.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Life, School, Home, Parting

“The entire time I'm burning in Hell, I'll regret each tear I made you weep. But if Hell were the price for twenty days with you, I'd condemn myself again and again.

- Cian MacKeltar”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Spell of the Highlander

Hell, Tear, Time

“Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.”

Geoff Dyer (1958) English writer

“The past was gone. Nothing could change what had already been. Looking back at it, letting its wounds fester, indulging in regret was just a different, slower way to die. The living moved forward.”

Jim Butcher Captain's Fury

Source: Captain's Fury

Way, Change, Past

“It's better to regret what you have done than what you haven't.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

“Fear is stupid, so are regrets.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Source: Marilyn Monroe Quotes vol 1

Stupidity, Fear

“But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.
-Jing-mei”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

Way

“Your children make it impossible to regret your past. They're its finest fruits. Sometimes the only ones.”

Anna Quindlen book Black and Blue

Source: Black and Blue

Children, Past

“I'm not big on regret. It's not on my schedule.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“You can't regret the life you didn't lead.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Life

“Although I have been through all that I have, I do not regret the many hardships I met, because it was they who brought me to the place I wished to reach.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.”

Katherine Mansfield book Je ne parle pas français

"Je ne parle pas français," http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mansfield/bliss/bliss.html#francais from Bliss and Other Stories (1920) <br class="br">Variant: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. <br class="br">Context: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. You can't get it into shape; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.

Life

“I regret everything because it has just finished, and already when I was twelve, I lamented the time that had gone by. Even in the best of spirits, it's always been as though I wrestle with the present in a vain effort to stop its becoming the past.”

Andrew Solomon book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Source: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Effort, Time, Past

“This must be what an addict feels like, I think,
trying to fight the pull of one last, quick read. My fingers itch toward the binding, and finally, with a sigh of regret, I just grab the book and open it, hungrily reading the story.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

Books, Feeling, Thinking, Reading

“Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: How Proust Can Change Your Life

Dead

“Sometimes you just have to regret things and move on.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

“You have to choose your future regrets.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Future

“My dad used to say that living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved in reverse.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Cars

“I sometimes wake in the early morning & listen to the soft breathing of my child & I think to myself, this is one thing I will never regret & I carry that quiet with me all day long.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Thinking

“He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future.”

Francisco de Quevedo (1584–1645) Spanish writer

Time, Past, Future

“May you get exactly what you want and live long enough to regret it.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Shadows

“I have many regrets, and I'm sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret if you have any sense, and if you don't regret them, maybe you're stupid.”

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) film, stage, and television actress

Stupidity, Sense

“Not everything's perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It's when you feel it all the time and can't do anything about it… that's when you get into trouble”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Feeling, Time, Perfection

“You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it!”

Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie

Amanda, Scene Five
Source: The Glass Menagerie (1944)

Past, Future

“I understood finally that the thing I
should have feared most was not loss, but
never loving. The price for safety was the regret
I felt at this moment. And yet I would
have to live with it for the rest of my life”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Love, Life, Fear, Loss

“I will practice coming back to the present moment… not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past or letting anxieties, fears, or cravings pull me out…”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

Fear, Past

“I’ve learned that everything happens for a reason,” the yogi Krishnan told him. “Every event has a why and all adversity teaches us a lesson… Never regret your past. Accept it as the teacher that it is.”

Robin S. Sharma book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Learning, Teachers, Past

“Regrets are the most useless form of guilt. They always arrive too late to do any good.”

Eileen Wilks Tempting Danger

Source: Tempting Danger

“A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as a grounds for regret but as a living challenge.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

“She wore a gown the color of storms, shadows, and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Source: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Color

“Regrets and apologies are all very well, but there's things that happen in a person's life that are so scorched in the memory and burned into the heart that there's no forgetting them. They're like brands.”

John Boyne (1971) Irish novelist, author of children's and youth fiction

Source: Mutiny on the Bounty

Life, Memory, Heart, Personality

“Never regret trusting someone. It proves you have a heart. But if he turns out to be a lying worm… I'm not going to waste my time crying. Because I am way too fabulous for that.”

Jude Watson book Beyond the Grave

Source: Beyond the Grave

Way, Lying, Time, Heart

“Regrets about the journey, maybe, but not the destination.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

“He bursts out laughing. It's short, as if he regretted allowing me to make him laugh, but the satisfaction's already mine.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

“I regret how much I believed in the future.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Future

“Regret is useless in life. It's in the past. All we have is now.”

Marlon Brando (1924–2004) American screen and stage actor

Life, Past

“To regret religion is to regret Western civilization.”

Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer

Religion

“My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Life

“You’ll never regret being a good friend.”

Emily Giffin Something Borrowed

Source: Something Borrowed

“.

There are times when I doubt everything. When I regret everything you've taken from me, everything I've given you, and the waste of all the time I've spent on us.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Time

“You aren’t old enough to have such regrets.”
“Pain doesn’t respect age, my lady.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Styxx

Pain, Age

“Live your life so that you’ll have no regrets. No matter how hard, no matter how sad, if something is precious to you, protect it with both arms.”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Life, Sadness

“They're always looking forward to going places they're just coming back from, or regretting doing things they haven't yet done. They say hello when they mean goodbye.”

Martin Amis book Time's Arrow

Source: Time's Arrow

“When a person sets a thing in motion, there's a feeling of unease, almost regret, until you learn the truth.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Truth, Feeling, Learning, Personality

“Patti, did art get us?'
I looked away, not really wanting to think about it. 'I don't know, Robert. I don't know.'
Perhaps it did, but no one could regret that. Only a fool would regret being had by art; or a saint.”

Patti Smith Just Kids

Source: Just Kids

Fools, Art, Thinking

“When I look back on the stuff I used to wear, I wonder why somebody didn't try to stop me. Just a friendly warning, "You may regret this," would have been fine.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: The Funny Thing Is...

“Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Life, Knowledge

“He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret.”

Charles Frazier book Cold Mountain

Source: Cold Mountain

“Regret is the most tiresome of companions.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

“That's not a real answer.'
Says who?'
Says me. I mean real fear, like of failure, of death, of regret. Like that. Something that keeps you awake nights, questioning your very existence.'
Clowns.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Death, Fear, Failure, Question

“You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done. It is what you haven't done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Life

“He put a dark place in me and I can't forgive him for that. But it's a part of me now and how can I regret what I am - though it often makes me sad.”

Valerie Martin (1948) American writer

Sadness, Forgiveness, Parting

“Then kiss me, Claire," he whispered, "And know that you are more to me than life, and I have no regret.”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

Life, Kiss

“I know that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us.”

Kristin Hannah book The Nightingale

Source: The Nightingale

Parting

“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, (1998), Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan (Chapter 4)

War, Fear, Knowledge

“Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Quotes about regret page 3

Quotes about regret
page 3