Could Have Been Quotes

• Our suffering is caused by holding on to how things might have been, should have been, could have been.

  Stephen Levine

  Should Have, Suffering, Might

  Stephen Levine, Ondrea Levine (2012). “Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying”, p.3, Anchor

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• Don't waste time thinking about what could have been when you could be thinking about what could be.

  Christopher Jones

  Thinking, Waste, Wasting Time

  5 Copy quote

• You really can't worry about stuff you can't control... You need to focus on getting where you need to be and not worry about what could have been and what should have been.

  Robbie Lawler

  Should Have, Mma, Worry

  28 Copy quote

• Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.

  Abba Eban

  Differences, Tragedy, Has Beens

  19 Copy quote

• We could have been happy. I know that, and it is perhaps the hardest thing to know.

  Ally Condie

  Lonely, Hardest, Knows

  Ally Condie (2011). “Matched”, p.217, Penguin

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• History is a novel that has been lived, a novel is history that could have been.

  Edmond de Goncourt

  Novel, Has Beens

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• It's amazing the things you realize
  when you lose someone:
  you get mad at yourself for not
  saying the things you could've a million times,
  you take for granted the days
  spent doing nothing when
  you could have been with them.
  Anyone can be taken,
  at any time in our lives,
  but we always wait until they're gone to say
  the things we never had the courage to before.

  Melody Carlson

  Taken, Mad, Waiting

  5 Copy quote

• Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different, it's accepting the past for what it was, and using this moment and this time to help yourself move forward.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Giving Up, Moving, Past

  "The Haunting of Our Past" by Jean-Paul Bedard, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 14, 2014.

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• You know what the true definition of hell is? It's when you die, you get to meet the person you could have been.

  Frank Mir

  Death, Sports, Mma

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• It could have been like a fairy tale. But fairy tales aren't real. Things don't work like that. There's a price for everything.

  Maureen Johnson

  Real, Fairy Tale, Tales

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• The word 'happiness' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced and contrasted and compared to sadness. In comparing how an experience could have been worse we develop gratitude and happiness, while if we compare it how it could have been better we develop bitterness and sadness.

  Carl Jung

  Gratitude, Sadness, Bitterness

  8 Copy quote

• History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided.

  Konrad Adenauer

  Government, History, Historical

  66 Copy quote

• Sometimes you have to look into a mirror and look at the worst you could have been if you're ever going to know the best you were meant to be.

  Christopher Plummer

  Mirrors, Looks, Were Meant To Be

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• When a couple gets to the last stage, one or both partners may have an affair. But an affair is usually a symptom of a dying marriage, not the cause. The end of that marriage could have been predicted long before either spouse strayed.

  John M. Gottman

  Couple, Long, Dying

  30 Copy quote

• I could have been a great many things.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Has Beens

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• Most failures could have been converted into successes if someone had held on another minute or made more effort.

  Napoleon Hill

  Effort, Made, Minutes

  Napoleon Hill (1997). “Napoleon Hill's Positive Action Plan: 365 Meditations For Making Each Day a Success”, p.89, Penguin

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• Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude. That which I was not but could have been. That which I would have done but did not do. Can I find the fortitude to remember in truth,to understand, to submit, to forgive and to be free to move on in time?

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Forgiveness, Attitude, Moving

  8 Copy quote

• As a player leaving early, you always look back and wonder what could have been. But you have to be happy with your decisions, because you ultimately have to live with them.

  Gilbert Arenas

  Player, Decision, Leaving

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• Take stock of your thoughts and behavior. Each night ask yourself, when were you negative when you could have been positive? When did you withhold love when you might have given it? When did you play a neurotic game instead of behaving in a powerful way? Use this process to self-correct.

  Marianne Williamson

  Powerful, Night, Self

  "10 Ways to Stay Spiritually Connected" by Marianne Williamson, www.oprah.com. May 2010.

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• We throw away what we could have been and waste our opportunities. We each have a purpose, a destiny, and to realize it, we must reach beyond what we think we are capable of.

  Colleen Houck

  Opportunity, Destiny, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Forgiveness, Wise, Giving Up

  FaceBook post by Oprah Winfrey from Oct 29, 2011

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• Don’t think about it. Don’t think about what could have been. It’s too unbearable.

  Sophie Kinsella

  Thinking, Unbearable, Has Beens

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• But...as bad as it was, I learned something about myself. That I could go through something like that and survive. I mean, I know it could have been worse--a lot worse-- but for me, it was all I could have handled at the time. And I learned from it.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Mean, Knows, Has Beens

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• There is a very good chance I could have been a screw-up for the rest of my life.

  Brandon Thomas

  Screw Ups, Chance, Very Good

  4 Copy quote

• What happened to you could have been worse - it could have happened to me.

  Ashleigh Brilliant

  Happened, Has Beens

  18 Copy quote