Selected regret quotes

1. I bet the worst part about dying is the part where your whole life passes before you.

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

3. 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.

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

5. 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.

6. Bad men are full of repentance.

7. 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.

8. Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.

9. I can no longer face life, so I've decided to go through the rest of it backwards.

10. The booby father craves a booby son, And by Heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.

11. The bell strikes one. We take no note of time But from its loss.

12. 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.

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

14. Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

15. Eat in the dark the bargain that you purchased in the dusk.

16. 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.

17. Better to love amiss than nothing to have loved.

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

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

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

30. 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.

31. May you live all the days of your life.

32. 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.

33. You don't even live once.

34. Things omitted are often more deadly than errors committed.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. 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!

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

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

40. A man is sorry to be honest for nothing.

41. Once lost, Jupiter himself cannot bring back opportunity.

42. Une occasion manquee se retrouve, tandis qu'on ne revient jamais d'une demarche precipitee.

43. Scarce had the morning starre hid from the light Heavens crimson canopie with stars bespangled, But I began to rue th' unhappy sight Of that faire boy that had my hart intangled; Cursing the time, the place, the sense, the sin; I came, I saw, I viewd, I slipped in. If it be sinne to love a sweet-fac'd boy, Whose amber locks trust up in golden tramels Dangle adowne his lovely cheekes with joy, When pearle and flowers his faire haire enamels; If it be sinne to love a lovely lad, Oh then sinne I, for whom my soule is sad.

44. Next morning, when the golden sunne was risen, And new had bid good morrow to the mountaines; When night her silver light had lockt in prison, Which gave a glimmering on the christall fountaines: Then ended sleepe, and then my cares began, Ev'n with the uprising of the silver swan. Oh, glorious sunne! quoth I, viewing the sunne, That lightenst everie thing but me alone: Why is my summer season almost done, My spring-time past, and ages autumne gone? My harvest's come, and yet I reapt no corne: My love is great, and yet I am forlorne.

45. He was my brother and I loved him a great deal. It was just an awful, awful mistake. We fed off each other and learned a lot from each other.

46. Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r, Thou's met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem: To spare thee now is past my pow'r, Thou bonie gem.

47. Thinking we were safe-insanity! We went in to make love. All the same Idiots to trust the little hotel bedroom. Then in the gloom... ...And who does not know that pair of shutters With all the awkward hook on them All screeching whispers?

48. I did issue a statement saying that I thought it was inappropriate, and perhaps Mr. Limbaugh didn't mean it, but he should not have said it.

49. Why make excuses close to the truth, especially when now I am presuming to try to grasp in my old age what I did not gain in my youth because my sins prevented me from making what I had read my own? But who will believe me, even though I should say it again? A young man, almost a beardless boy, I was taken captive before I knew what I should desire and what I should shun.

50. Bid us sigh on from day to day, And wish and wish the soul away, Till youth and genial years are flown, And all the life of life is gone.

51. Unchanged within, to see all changed without, Is a blank lot and hard to bear, no doubt. Yet why at others' Wanings should'st thou fret? Then only might'st thou feel a just regret, Hadst thou withheld thy love or hid thy light In selfish forethought of neglect and slight.

52. I could be content that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar act of coition; It is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life, nor is there anything that will more deject his cooled imagination, when he shall consider what an odd and unworthy piece of folly he hath committed.

53. Bestow therefore thy youth so, that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.

54. Atque etiam recordatus quondam super cenam, quod nihil cuiquam toto die praestitisset, memorabilem illam meritoque laudatam vocem edidit: 'Amici, diem perdidi.'

55. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

56. 'The people may eat grass': hasty words, which fly abroad irrevocable-and will send back tidings.

57. 'How extremely stupid [of me] not to have thought of that' said in particular of the idea of natural selection.

58. Never go to France Unless you know the lingo, If you do, like me, You will repent, by jingo.

59. My head was like an ardent coal, My heart as solid ice; My wretched, wretched soul, I knew, Was at the Devil's price: A dozen times I groaned: the dead Had never groaned but twice!

60. And I don't want to question or even celebrate all the joy you took and then gave back too late.

61. I think my exact words were 'Fuck me!'

62. I could have been a serious athlete, only to have my promise cut short when I discovered Woodbines and women. Thankfully I have long since given up the former, and the latter have long since given up on me-except, of course, for the lovely Lady Stratford, who for reasons beyond my comprehension still tolerates my presence.

63. Forse, se tu gustassi anco una volta La millesima parte de la gioie Che gusta un cor amato riamando, Diresti, ripentita, sospirando: Perduto e tutto il tempo Che in amar non si spende.

64. 'I think it's a total nightmare and disaster, and I'm ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it (the U.S. war in Iraq). It's something I'll never do again. Never. I got convinced by a friend of mine who's smarter than I am, and I shouldn't have done that. No. I want things to work out, but I'm enraged by it, actually.'

65. I spend my time in this cell, ain't livin well/I know my destiny is Hell, where did I fail?

66. 'You want me to change? I can change. I know I can be a better father and a better husband.' (Towards his family)

67. Now I understand what you tried to say to me How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free They would not listen they did not know how, perhaps they'll listen now.

68. If you follow a certain road for some time, it takes an enormous willpower to leave, although you might recognize that the road was not good. But in my case I believed and was convinced that I was serving and helping the people until the last. However, it is a terrible fate that has befallen me. If I had remained with my writing and my music I would be working now and not a criminal in the Nuremburg prison.

69. [after jumping into the grizzly bear pit at the San Diego Zoo] I immediately regret this decision.

70. I had a thought for no one's but your ears: That you were beautiful, and that I strove To love you in the old high way of love; That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown As weary-hearted as that hollow moon.

71. The end of life evokes the errors of it, and a fellow wishes he had known better.

72. When you're hitting it as good as he is, and starting to putt decent, it's a hard combination especially with a guy who has as much experience as he does. I feel good about how I played. I missed a couple putts on the back, but that was probably about it. No regrets.

73. To regret your sins of commission as much as your sins of omission is to prove yourself a most unworthy sinner.

74. My lords, the past cannot be cured.

75. It seems that I have spent my entire time trying to make life more rational and that it was all wasted effort.

76. Oh, if I could live four weeks longer! but no matter, no matter!

77. He said, 'Man, I just escaped from Exodus' [a treatment facility]. I didn't have any foresight that the guy was going to do what he did. I could tell he was bummed out, and I'd been that way before. We were at baggage claim, and I thought I'd ask him to come stay at my house. I turned around and he was gone... What if. Only if. A lot of my friends have died. If only he'd...

78. I found her and then I lost her

79. Have I not found a happy earth? I least should breathe a thought of pain. Would God renew me from my birth I'd almost live my life again. So sweet it seems with thee to walk, And once again to woo thee mine - It seems in after-dinner talk Across the walnuts and the wine -

80. One day nothing meant nothing Ten dollars tore us apart One thing led to a dead end One shot put her away

81. 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

82. 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.

83. '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!'

84. 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

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

86. 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

87. 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

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

89. 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

90. 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

91. 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

92. 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

93. 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

94. 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

95. 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

96. '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

97. 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

98. I told you I was ill!

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

100. 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