The world is full of hundreds of beautiful things we can never possibly have time to discover, and there is no time to be unkind or envious or ungenerous, and no sense in enslaving the mind to the trivialities of the moment. For you can be equal to the greatness of life only by marching with it; not by seeking love but by giving it, nor seeking to be understood but learning to understand. And when it is all over, there will be an agony of remorse because one spared the effort and did not make more of that little span of opportunity; and knowing reality at last, who knows but that one will look back with unassuageable regret upon one's pitiful little faith.
—Vivienne de Watteville
Chronic 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
I had no regrets about the way I'd turned out. Regrets about the journey, maybe, but not the destination.
—Nicholas Sparks in Dear John
I've learned that it's all about choice. You can choose to turn regrets into lessons that change your future.
—Ali Harris in The First Last Kiss
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night.
—Charlie Brown in Charles Schulz's Peanuts
Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
—Kimberly Johnson
We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.
—Horace Walpole
Maybe if I didn't say anything about what happened, we could get back to the way we were. Ignoring a problem was a perfectly acceptable way to deal with it, as long as both people agree never to bring it up again.
—Kim Harrison in and the Undead
The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity.
—Helen Rowland
Even when we were standing in church and I was getting ready to take my vow I can remember wishing that you were standing there instead of him.
—Nicholas Sparks in The Best of Me
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, whom would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
—Stephen Levine
I missed everything about my old life. I just wanted it back.
—Sarah Dessen in What Happened to Goodbye
Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret."… I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions, like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." I'd like to show how "intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members" connects to "the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age." I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.
—Jeffrey Eugenides
Humans—who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals—have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential if we are to bend them to our will, wear them, eat them—without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret.
—Carl Sagan
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 in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close