My one regret in life is that I’m not someone else.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Remorse begets reform.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
I must place on record my regret that the human race ever learned to fly.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
This is another day! Are its eyes blurred With maudlin grief for any wasted past? A thousand thousand failures shall not daunt! Let dust clasp dust, death, death; I am alive.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
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
One regret dear world, that I am determined not to have when I am lying on my deathbed is that I did not kiss you enough.
—Hafez (1325–89) Persian Poet, Mystic
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
There is no future pang can deal that justice on the self-condemned, he deals on his own soul.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Regret is an odd emotion because it comes only upon reflection. Regret lacks immediacy, and so its power seldom influences events when it could do some good.
—Edward William O’Rourke (1917–99) American Roman Catholic Bishop
I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
To be left alone, and face to face with my own crime, had been just retribution.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Classic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Every noble work is bound to face problems and obstacles. It is important to check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest, and reasonable. One’s actions should be good for others, and for oneself as well. Once a positive goal is chosen, you should decide to pursue it all the way to the end. Even if it is not realized, at least there will be no regret.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
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
Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author
Let the dead Past bury its dead.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
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
There is no man that is to himself knowingly guilty and that carries guilt about him, but receives a sting into his soul.
—John Tillotson
Your past is always going to be the way it was. Stop trying to change it.
—Unknown
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
A mistake is not a failure, but evidence that someone tried to do something.
—Unknown
Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret.
—Robert E. Lee (1807–70) Confederate General during American Civil War
This is the bitterest of all, to wear the yoke of our own wrong-doing.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English 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 Educator, Author
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Think not that guilt requires the burning torches of the furies to agitate and torment it.—Frauds, crimes, remembrances of the past and terrors of the future, these are the domestic furies that are ever present to the minds of the impious.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Hindsight is always 20/20.
—Billy Wilder (1906–2002) American Filmmaker
I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations—one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it—you will regret both.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
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
There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
I am afraid to think what I have done; lock on it again I dare not.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
You’ll seldom experience regret for anything that you’ve done. It is what you haven’t done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments. Using them up in any self-defeating ways means you’ve lost them forever.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
One man’s remorse is another man’s reminiscence.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Fools live to regret their words, wise men to regret their silence.
—Unknown
Once my heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, “I shall never, never forget!” “You will, though,” the Queen said, “if you don’t make a memorandum of it.
—Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–98) British Anglican Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Photographer, Logician
I have many regrets, and I’m sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret … if you have any sense; and, if you don’t regret them, maybe you’re stupid.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American Actor, TV Personality
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
The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.
—Tallulah Bankhead (1902–68) American Actress
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
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
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic