REGRET QUOTES III
quotations about regret
It's better to act and to regret
Than to regret not to have acted.
MELLIN DE SAINT-GELAIS
Quatrains
For when regret calls to a person it is always late.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits
We hope, and then we regret. We hope for the future, and then we turn to the past, and then we begin slowly and desperately to hope for the past! The two most violent and abiding feelings, hope and regret, both lean upon nothing.
HENRI BARBUSSE
Light
And doth it haunt thy memory yet,
Mourner, that sad and vain regret?
Hath it pursued thee amid the strife,
The toils, the cares, and fears of life?
MARGARET THERESA WIGHTMAN
"Vain Regrets", The Faithful Shepherd and Other Poems
I'd never understood the injunction not to regret anything, couldn't see how that wasn't cowardice.
CHINA MIÉVILLE
Embassytown
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
No other road, no other way, no day but today.
I can't control my destiny.
I trust my soul. My only goal is just to be.
JONATHAN LARSON
"Another Day", Rent
We waste half our strength in a useless regretting;
We sit by old tombs in the dark too long.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
"Resolve"
No trouble ever got fixed late at night.... Midnight is for regrets.
HOLLY BLACK
Red Glove
Heart knows no sorrow like the sorrow of regretting.
MARTHA LAVINIA HOFFMAN
"Under the Violets Blue"
The breast ne'er heaved nor throbbed yet
That hath not ached with its vain regret.
MARGARET THERESA WIGHTMAN
"Vain Regrets", The Faithful Shepherd and Other Poems
Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow.
L. RON HUBBARD
The Creation of Human Ability
Regrets, toward the evening of life, will occur nearly to all, even the happiest; we mourn the departure of the luminary, though his setting be glorious. How many regrets, too, will at this period occur to those who have utterly, not comparatively, failed in the golden anticipation of their early years! To have missed the pleasures--how inexpressibly bitter is the thought!
J. HILL
Essays on a Few Subjects of General Interest: To Which are Added Scraps and Recollections
I knew that what I had felt was envy or regret, not for something lost but for something never achieved.
P. D. JAMES
The Children of Men
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
"Maud Muller"
Don't regret your life, child, it will pass soon enough.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
Lighthousekeeping
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
Tallulah: My Autobiography
We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.
STEVE MARABOLI
Unapologetically You
You'll never regret writing any letter out of love. However, it's a good idea to reread anything you've written in anger.
MARY MATALIN
Letters to My Daughters
Often regret is very false and displaced, and imagines the past to be totally other than it was.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Anam Cara
Regret is a functional emotion that can protect us from wasting money and help us to maintain good social relationships. Additionally, it makes bad decisions and wrong choices stand out in our memory and helps us to make better decisions in the future.
MARCEL ZEELENBERG
Oxford Companion to Emotion and the Affective Sciences