360 Regret Quotes

His folly has not fellow Beneath the blue of day That gives to man or woman His heart and soul away.

Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

If the only significant history of human thought were to be written, it would have to be the history of its successive regrets and its impotences.

I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.

It's like seeing someone for the first time, and you look at each other for a few seconds, and there's this kind of recognition like you both know something. Next moment the person's gone, and it's too late to do anything about it.

To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.

I was asked the other day if I would be interested in the Nobel Prize, but I think that for me it would be an absolute catastrophe. I would certainly be interested in deserving it, but to receive it would be terrible. It would just complicate even more the problems of fame. The only thing I really regret in life is not having a daughter.

Better to love amiss than nothing to have loved.

To sigh, yet not recede; to grieve, yet not repent.

Only a fool has no regrets and I'm not a fool.

The idea of bringing someone into the world fills me with horror. I would curse myself if I were a father. A son of mine! Oh no, no, no! May my entire flesh perish and may I transmit to no one the aggravations and the disgrace of existence.

I tried to commit suicide because I sacrificed everything for Hitler. And that man whom we sacrificed everything for left us all alone. If he had committed suicide four years before, it would have been all right.

Oh all the times I've listened, and all the times I've heard All the melodies I'm missing, and all the magic words, And all those potent voices, and the choices we had then, How I'd love to find we had that kind of choice again.

And all the trips you know you missed And all the lips you never kissed Cut through you like a knife. And now you see stretched out before thee Just another story of a life.

I guess it's a sequel to our story From the journey 'tween heaven and hell With half the time thinking of what might have been and half thinkin' just as well. I guess only time will tell.

Under pressure, the mouth speaks when the brain is disengaged, and, sometimes unwittingly, the gearshift is in reverse when it should be in neutral.

I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful.

Now, there's no use crying over spoiled milk.

Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts.

Death, death. Now I won't be able to write my beautiful memoirs.

What do you suppose makes all men look back to the time of childhood with so much regret (if their childhood has been, in any moderate degree, healthy or peaceful)? That rich charm, which the least possession had for us, was in consequence of the poorness of our treasures.

May you live all the days of your life.

In church your grandsire cut his throat; to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my hearty vote to cut his throat before he married.

You don't even live once.

Things omitted are often more deadly than errors committed.

I've never liked the name Marilyn. I've often wished that I had held out that day for Jean Monroe. But I guess it's too late to do anything about it now.

In two cases I did not fulfill my role as defense minister, in that I did not stop things that I was sure should have been stopped.

May he be cursed on earth who gives his trust to virtue, that bankrupt crone who takes our life's pure gold and gives but bad receipts for payment in the lower world. Ah, passers-by that stroll, travelers that come and go, all that I had, I placed on virtue, and lost the game!

How clever of me. I have found such a pathway into hell that I can never get back out.

Once you duct-tape a Ziploc bag to a man's chest, there's no going back.

A man is sorry to be honest for nothing.

The first time I saw you I knew it would never last I'm not half what I wish I was I'm so angry I don't think it'll ever pass And I was bad news for you just because I never meant to hurt you

I have often though how much happier I should have been, if instead of accepting of a command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket upon my shoulders and entered the rank, or if I could have justified the measure of posterity, and my own conscience, had retired to the back country, and lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies; for surely if we get well through this month, it must be for want of their knowing the disadvantages we labor under. Could I have forseen the difficulties which have come upon is, could I have known that such a backwardness would have been discovered in the old soldiers to the service, all the genrerals upon earth should not have convinced me of the propriety of delaying an attack upon Boston till this time.

'Niggle's Picture!' said Parish in astonishment. 'Did you think of all this, Niggle? I never knew you were so clever. Why didn't you tell me?' 'He tried to tell you long ago,' said the man; 'but you would not look. He had only got canvas and paint in those days, and you wanted to mend your roof with them. This is what you and your wife used to call Niggle's Nonsense, or That Daubing.' 'But it did not look like this then, not real,' said Parish. 'No, it was only a glimpse then,' said the man; 'but you might have caught the glimpse, if you had ever thought it worth while to try.' 'I did not give you much chance,' said Niggle. 'I never tried to explain. I used to call you Old Earth-grubber. But what does it matter? We have lived and worked together now. Things might have been different, but they could not have been better. All the same, I am afraid I shall have to be going on. We shall meet again, I expect: there must be many more things we can do together. Good-bye!'

once I could love, I could trust, I could not doubt but that was just about the worst thing that I could do it was just about the worst thing that I could do

I wish I had died before seeing him, he will surely undo me before he's through

That was what she knew of love. No wonder [he] never recognized her love when she gave it to him. Even now, if he knew that she had loved him, it would break his heart

That's what's eating you alive. That you aren't the kind of guy who takes the law into his own hands. You left the law in other hands and it screwed you over pretty badly

Wishes are a waste of time... They only make you unhappy

How is it less bearable than that beautiful boy who wanted so badly to do the right thing that he did it all wrong, lost his chance, and now is caught in the sum of all his wrong turns? I got on the road they all wanted to take, and I reached the top, but it wasn't where I should have gone, I'm still that boy. I did not have to lie when I went home to her

I don't ever want to see you again. You've made me regret the one unregretable decision of my life - [her]. You've made me wish, somewhere in my heart, that id never married her. Which is like making me wish id never been born

I wondered for a frightening moment how I dared to make such a decision for the whole world, without consulting anyone else. Then I laughed at myself. It was a little too late to wonder if I ought to play god. The game was already over

I never knew I love father till he lay there at the brink of death. Perhaps I never did love him, until he was nearly gone. It seemed a very powerful thought, until it occurred to him that justice probably put it into his mind

I can't believe you've listed everything I stole since we met But I stole no kisses Just some books And the odd cigarette

now we're busy making all our busy plans on foundations built to last but nothing fades as fast as the future and nothing clings like the past, until we can see more than this

That risks were involved, all of us knew; but none, so far as we could foresee, that were too great. Otherwise, as leader of a big polar expedition, and subject to all the responsibilities implicit in command, I could not have gone. That I miscalculated is proved by the fact that I nearly lost my life. Yet, I do not regret going. ~ Ch. 1

'Life is so strange... When I married Shahrukh and came to Mumbai, I had my fears. Everything about the place including the film industry seemed so strange and awkward that every two months I'd run back to Delhi to my family. But finally, I did find my feet here and today I have absolutely no regrets in life. - Gauri

When I see Aryan and Suhana, I see purity and spontaneity. Untouched by commerce, untainted by envy even as an actor, I grow simply by watching them. The truth is that I dont want to be this famous but absentee father. I want my children to flower under my care. - Shahrukh

I told you I was ill!

But now things change/cuz you don't look the same/let the ghetto get the best of you/baby, that's a shame

And in the end it seems I'm headin for tha pen/I try and find my friends, but they're blowin in the wind

I was weeping because Richard Parker left me so unceremoniously. What a terrible thing it is to botch the farewell. I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things meaningful shape. It is important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse. That bungled good bye hurts me to this day. p.316-317

Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Your lips are thrilling My arms are willing I know that I shouldn't stay. If I don't leave I'll be sorry What will my Mary say?

'I am but as others: I am but what I was born to be.' 'Do you recognize what you were born to be? Not only a nobleman, but a gentleman; not only a gentleman, but a man - man, made in the image of God. How can you, how dare you, give the lie to your Creator?' 'What has He given me? What have I to thank Him for?' 'First, manhood; the manhood His Son disdained not to wear; worldly gifts, such as rank, riches, influence, things which others have to spend half an existence in earning; life in its best prime, with much of youth yet remaining - with grief endured, wisdom learnt, experience won. Would to Heaven, that by any poor word of mine I could make you feel all that you are - all that you might be!' A gleam, bright as a boy's hope, wild as a boy's daring, flashed from those listless eyes - then faded. 'You mean, Mr. Halifax, what I might have been. Now it is too late.' 'There is no such word as 'too late,' in the wide world - nay, not in the universe. What! shall we, whose atom of time is but a fragment out of an ever-present eternity - shall we, so long as we live, or even at our life's ending, dare to cry out to the Eternal One, 'It is too late!''

I'll plead no more! I see now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!

We pay when old for the excesses of youth.

The dews of the evening most carefully shun - Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.

Erring, I wandered in the wilderness, In passion's grave nigh sinking, powerless; Now deeply I repent, in sore distress, That I kept not the statutes of the King!

Erring, I wandered in the wilderness, In passion's grave nigh sinking, powerless; Now deeply I repent, in sore distress, That I kept not the statutes of the King!

L'esprit de l'escalier

There is a maxim, 'Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.' It is a maxim for sluggards. A better reading of it is, 'Never do today what you can as well do tomorrow,' because something may occur to make you regret your premature action.

To sum it all up, I must say that I regret nothing.

I was duped ... by the Secretary of the treasury, and made a fool for forwarding his schemes, not then sufficiently understood by me; and of all the errors of my political life, this has occasioned the deepest regret.

We hear the wail of the remorseful winds In their strange penance. And this wretched orb Knows not the taste of rest; a maniac world, Homeless and sobbing through the deep she goes.

Je suis venu trop tard dans un monde trop vieux. (I have come too late into a world too old.)

In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.

'My only true regret, however, is that now that I see the world more clearly than ever, as I believe I do, I don't seem to have the time left to translate my visions into action as I would like.'

We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.

Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.

Life on the road can get a little one-dimensional. I didn't want to reach 40 and have to say all I'd done was look out the window of a tour bus and get drunk.

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger, Or wonder, till it drives you mad, What would have followed if you had. (ch. 4)

'Ah, Psyche,' I said, 'have I made you so little happy as that?'

A rule of thumb for a warrior is that he makes his decisions so carefully that nothing that may happen as a result of them can surprise him, much less drain his power.

When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites- to be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurance- there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.

'Don't burn the day away'

'And I cant believe that we would lie in our graves dreaming of things that we might have been'

[On her abortion] It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.

Time ticks by; we grow older. Before we know it, too much time has passed and we've missed the chance to have had people hurt us. To a younger me this sounded like luck; to an older me this sounded like a quiet tragedy.

'I wish my parents took good care of their grow-op.'

I have read but little of Madame Glyn. I did not know that things like It were going on. I have misspent my days. When I think of all those hours I flung away in reading Henry James and Santayana, when I might have been reading of life, throbbing, beating, perfumed life, I practically break down.

Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.

My worst mistake was the stupid suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism, all along.

A tedium that includes only the anticipation of more tedium; the regret, now, of tomorrow regretting having regretted today.

I reread? I lied! I don't dare to reread. I cannot reread. What's the point, for me, in rereading?

There's no regret more painful than the regret of things that never were.

If I had written King Lear, I would regret it all my life afterwards. Because that work is so big, that its defects show as huge, its monstrous defects, things even minimal in between some scenes and their possible perfection. It's not the sun with spots; it's a broken greek statue.

They were two and beautiful and wanted to be something else; love delayed itself to them in the tedium of the future, and regret of what would happen to be was already being the daughter of the love they hadn't had.

Notre repentir n'est pas tant un regret du mal que nous avons fait, qu'une crainte de celui qui nous en peut arriver.

Ceux qui ont eu de grandes passions se trouvent toute leur vie heureux, et malheureux, d'en etre gueris.