Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently!
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
Life often seems like a long shipwreck of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love.—The shores of existence are strewn with them.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
How disappointment tracks the steps of hope.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
The follies which a man regrets most in his life, are those which he didn’t commit when he had the opportunity.
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950) American Journalist, Humorist
The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.
—Robert Kiyosaki (b.1947) American Businessperson, Author, Motivational Speaker
To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
It is generally known, that he who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldom cures us of expectation, or has any effect other than that of producing a moral sentence or peevish exclamation.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.
—Robert Brault
You can’t regret what you can’t remember.
—Lisa Birnbach (b.1957) American Writer, Editor
Disappointments are to the soul what a thunder-storm is to the air.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
The best enjoyment is half disappointment to what we intend or would have in this world.
—Gamaliel Bailey (1807–59) American Journalist
We mount to heaven mostly on the ruins of our cherished schemes, finding our failures were successes.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Regret for time wasted can become a power for good in the time that remains. And the time that remains is time enough, if we will only stop the waste and the idle, useless regretting.
—Arthur Brisbane (1864–1936) American Newspaper Editor, Investor
One’s best success comes after their greatest disappointments.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
There is nothing to regret—either for those who go or for those who are left behind.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.
—Sivananda Saraswati (1887–1963) Indian Hindu Spiritual Teacher
Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.
—Eleanor Hibbert (1906–93) British Novelist
Man must be disappointed with the lesser things of life before he can comprehend the full value of the greater.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfilment of that hope never entirely removes.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Take every gain without showing remorse about missed profits, because an eel may escape sooner than you think.
—Lope de Vega (1562–1635) Spanish Playwright, Poet, Writer
We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.
—Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874–1942) Canadian Novelist
Speak when you are angry—and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-Born American Author
Fools live to regret their words, wise men to regret their silence.
—Unknown
The chemist who can extract from his heart’s elements, compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-American Philosopher, Poet, Sculptor
Be calm and strong and patient. Meet failure and disappointment with courage. Rise superior to the trials of life, and never give in to hopelessness or despair. In danger, in adversity, cling to your principles and ideals. Aequanimitas!
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
Leave a Reply