Regret Quotes - Page 28

• Never let me lose the marvel of your statue-like eyes, or the accent the solitary rose of your breath places on my cheek at night. I am afraid of being, on this shore, a branchless trunk, and what I most regret is having no flower, pulp, or clay for the worm of my despair. If you are my hidden treasure, if you are my cross, my dampened pain, if I am a dog, and you alone my master, never let me lose what I have gained, and adorn the branches of your river with leaves of my estranged Autumn.

  Federico Garcia Lorca

  Dog, Pain, Flower

  Federico García Lorca, “Sonnet Of The Sweet Complaint”

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Of course many bars in Manhasset, like bars everywhere, were nasty places, full of pickled people marinating in regret.

  J. R. Moehringer

  People, Bars, Nasty

  J. R. Moehringer (2005). “The Tender Bar: A Memoir”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Charles Frazier

  Names, Might, Cold Mountain

  Charles Frazier (1997). “Cold Mountain”, p.281, Atlantic Monthly Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.

  Douglas Adams

  Life, Mistake, Inspire

  Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry (2012). “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, p.203, Pan Macmillan

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• The worst of it is that I am perpetually being punished for nothing; this governor loves to punish, and he punishes by taking my books away from me. It's perfectly awful to let the mind grind itself away between the upper and nether millstones of regret and remorse without respite; with books my life would be livable -- any life.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Mind, Would Be

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Life And Love, Sacrifice, Choices

  Twitter post from Mar 26, 2017

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Well, it was most likely too late; there would not be time for me to flagellate myself for every dishonorable deed in that list, nor any chance to make good the harms I’d done. Minor harms, to be sure, in the scheme of things; but large enough to regret.

  Clive Barker

  Too Late, Done, Deeds

  Clive Barker (2010). “Galilee”, p.55, HarperCollins UK

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Clouds, Trying, Wish

  Libba Bray (2010). “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, p.121, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• To regret religion is to regret Western civilization.

  Theodore Dalrymple

  Civilization, Western Civilization, Western

  15 Copy quote

• The memory of that event has only just come back to me, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities. Mithra-Grandchamp is the women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away. Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of those small near misses: a race whose result we know beforehand but in which we fail to bet on the winner.

  Jean-Dominique Bauby

  Memories, Past, Opportunity

  Jean-Dominique Bauby (2008). “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, p.94, Knopf Group E-Books

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Motivational, Stupid, Ignorance

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Albert Camus

  Significant, Myth Of Sisyphus, Humans

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.18, Vintage

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• A certain critic -- for such men, I regret to say, do exist -- made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Summer, Children, Silly

  P.G. Wodehouse (2009). “Summer Lightning: (Blandings Castle)”, p.10, Random House

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never, ever regret or apologize for believing that when one man or one woman decides to risk addressing the world with truth, the world may stop what it is doing and hear. There is too much evidence to the contrary.

  Robert Fulghum

  Truth, Believe, Men

  Robert Fulghum (2011). “Maybe (Maybe Not): Second Thoughts from a Secret Life”, p.228, Ballantine Books

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.

  John Lennon

  Men, Violence, Violent Man

  John Lennon, Yōko Ono, David Sheff, G. Barry Golson (1981). “The Playboy interviews with John Lennon and Yōko Ono”, Putnam Pub Group

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Did she ever regret her choices? Were her decisions more clear-cut than mine - or are there always shades of gray whe it comes to matters of the heart?

  Emily Giffin

  Heart, Cutting, Choices

  Emily Giffin (2008). “Love the One You're With”, p.194, St. Martin's Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Life, Future, Lasts

  10 Copy quote

• It"s good to keep wide-open ears and listen to what everybody else has to say, but when you come to make a decision, you have to weigh all of what you"ve heard on its own, and place it where it belongs, and come to a decision for yourself; you"ll never regret it. But if you form the habit of taking what someone else says about a thing without checking it out for yourself, you"ll find that other people will have you hating your friends and loving your enemies.

  Malcolm X

  Hate, People, Decision

  "Speech to Civil Rights Workers from Mississippi". malcolmxfiles.blogspot.com. January 1, 1965.

  108 Copy quote

  Show source

• A fight is going on inside me," said an old man to his son. "It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other wolf is good. he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you." The son thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Which wolf will win?" The old man replied simply, "The one you feed.

  Wendy Mass

  Kindness, Lying, Humility

  32 Copy quote

• For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Children, Sunshine, Light

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2013). “The Great Gatsby”, p.14, Atlântico Press

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• I regret nothing. There have been things I missed, but I ask no questions, because I have loved it, such as it has been, even the moments of emptiness, even the unanswered-and that I loved it, that is the unanswered in my life.

  Ayn Rand

  Emptiness, Moments, Fountainhead

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.524, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Instead of things I'm good at, it might be faster to list the things I can't do. I can't cook or clean the house. My room's a mess, and I'm always losing things. I love music, but I can't sing a note. I'm clumsy and can barely sew a stitch. My sense of direction is the pits, and I can't tell left from right half the time. When I get angry, I tend to break things. Plates and pencils, alarm clocks. Later on I regret it, but at the time I can't help myself. I have no money in the bank. I'm bashful for no reason, and I have hardly any friends to speak of.

  Haruki Murakami

  House, Half, Might

  4 Copy quote

• The memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment.

  Marcel Proust

  Memories, Moments, Particular

  Marcel Proust (1982). “Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's way. Within a budding grove”, Vintage

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no point in keeping vengeance or stubbornness. These things" -he sighed- "these things I so regret in my life. Pride. Vanity. Why do we do the things we do? Morrie Schwartz

  Mitch Albom

  Pride, Vanity, Vengeance

  7 Copy quote

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

  Amy Tan

  Get Better, Way, Joy Luck Club

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club: A Novel”, p.102, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

  Show source