100 Quotes About Regret

Sometimes we do things we regret and other times we don’t. When we regret what we’ve done, the feeling is often tied to an emotion. Sometimes it’s fear, sometimes it’s anger, and sometimes it’s regret itself. In any case, these quotes about regret are here to remind you that everything happens for a reason.

Time was passing like a hand waving from a train...
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Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on. I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you. Jonathan Safran Foer
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The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only thing people regret is that they didn't live boldly enough, that they didn't invest enough heart, didn't love enough. Nothing else really counts at all. Ted Hughes
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Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however much later, it is finally happening to you: you’re falling to the floor crying thinking, “I am falling to the floor crying, ” but there’s an element of the ridiculous to it – you knew it would happen and, even worse, while you’re on the floor crying you look at the place where the wall meets the floor and you realize you didn’t paint it very well. Richard Siken
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They send a person who can never stay, " she whispered. "Who can never accept my offer of companionship for more than a little while. They send me a hero I can't help. . just the sort of person I can't help falling in love with.".. As I sailed into the lake I realized the Fates really were cruel. They sent Calypso someone she couldn't help but love. But it worked both ways. For the rest of my life I would be thinking about her. She would always be my biggest what if. Rick Riordan
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I wanted to tell her everything, maybe if I'd been able to, we could have lived differently, maybe I'd be there with you now instead of here. Maybe... if I'd said, 'I'm so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything, ' maybe that would have made the impossible possible. Maybe, but I couldn't do it, I had buried too much too deeply inside me. And here I am, instead of there. Jonathan Safran Foer
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If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been. Nicholas Sparks
You might be looking for reasons but there are no...
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You might be looking for reasons but there are no reasons. Nina Lacour
When someone you love says goodbye you can stare long...
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When someone you love says goodbye you can stare long and hard at the door they closed and forget to see all the doors God has open in front of you. Shannon L. Alder
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It’s not that we have to quit this life one day, it’s how many things we have to quit all at once: holding hands, hotel rooms, music, the physics of falling leaves, vanilla and jasmine, poppies, smiling, anthills, the color of the sky, coffee and cashmere, literature, sparks and subway trains... If only one could leave this life slowly! Roman Payne
The only things I regret, and the only things I'll...
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The only things I regret, and the only things I'll ever regret are things I didn't do. In the end, that's what we mourn. The paths we didn't take. The people we didn't touch. Scott Spencer
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Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy. Roy T. Bennett
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We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Steve Maraboli
The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I...
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The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did. Jonathan Safran Foer
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It’s not that we have to quit this life one day, but it’s how many things we have to quit all at once: music, laughter, the physics of falling leaves, automobiles, holding hands, the scent of rain, the concept of subway trains... if only one could leave this life slowly! Roman Payne
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Droll thing life is -- that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself -- that comes too late -- a crop of inextinguishable regrets. Joseph Conrad
Have you ever hoped for something? And held out for...
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Have you ever hoped for something? And held out for it against all the odds? Until everything you did was ridiculous? Ali Shaw
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Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy. . Unknown
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You'd think, 'What if I make a mistake today, I'll regret it'. I don’t believe in regret, I feel everything leads us to where we are and we have to just jump forward, mean well, commit and just see what happens. Angelina Jolie
Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all...
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Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans? Kazuo Ishiguro
No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been...
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No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found. Samuel Beckett
You can't regret the life you didn't lead.
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You can't regret the life you didn't lead. Unknown
I wouldn't have missed a single minute of it, Not...
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I wouldn't have missed a single minute of it, Not for the whole world. Stephen King
Everybody was sorry. Sorry was easy. Sorry was for suckers.
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Everybody was sorry. Sorry was easy. Sorry was for suckers. Gretchen McNeil
Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that...
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Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that you can't change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future. Colleen Hoover
I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late...
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I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? You've lived your life. No point wishing you could change it. Lemmy Kilmister
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other...
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Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other path, no other way, no day but today. Jonathan Larson
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I need just be a bayonet, a bayonet named Diving Punishment. I wish I'd been born a storm. Or a menace. Or a single grenade. No heart, no tears, just as a terrible gale'd have been good. If [by doing this] I become that, then so be it. Kohta Hirano
A thousand times I was ready to regret and take...
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A thousand times I was ready to regret and take back my rash statement - yet it had been the truth. Hermann Hesse
Sister - if all this is true, what could I...
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Sister - if all this is true, what could I do or undo? Sophocles
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There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart. The heart, making itself guilty of such secrets, must perforce hold them, until the day when all hidden things shall be revealed. Nor have I so read or interpreted the Holy Writ, as to understand that the disclosure of human thoughts and deeds, then to be made, is intended as part of the retribution. That, surely, were a shallow view of it. No; these revelations, unless I greatly error, are meant merely to promote the intellectual satisfaction of all intelligent beings, who will stand waiting, on that day, to see the dark problem of this life made plain. A knowledge of men's hearts will be needful to the completest solution of that problem. And I conceive, moreover, that the hearts holding such secrets as you speak of will yield them up, at that last day, not with reluctance, but with a joy unutterable. . Nathaniel Hawthorne
Always be truthful and you will have fewer visits from...
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Always be truthful and you will have fewer visits from regret, guilt or fear. Suzy Kassem
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Mr. Frimpong is the oldest person from church. That's when I knew why he sings louder than anybody else: it's because he's been waiting the longest for God to answer. He thinks God has forgotten him. I only knew it then. Then I loved him but it was too late to go back. Stephen Kelman
Men didn't have any idea about regretbefore God felt so...
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Men didn't have any idea about regretbefore God felt so once after created us. Toba Beta
Good...if you've done things you aren't proud of. It means...
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Good...if you've done things you aren't proud of. It means you have a conscience. Criss Jami
Robert had taught him to keep his thoughts in the...
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Robert had taught him to keep his thoughts in the present or near future, for as Robert had told him, To dwell in the past is to live in regret. Raymond E. Feist
If everything happens for a reason that means you made...
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If everything happens for a reason that means you made the right choice even when it’s the wrong choice Treyco
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So here i sit. a sum of the parts. about a third way down this wonderful path, so to speak. and i've been thinking lately about a friendship that fell apart with time, with distance, and with the misunderstanding of youth. i'm trying not to confuse sadness with regret. not the easiest thing at times. i dont regret that certain things happened. i understand that perhaps i had a choice in the matter, or perhaps i believe in fate. probably not, but so far actions as small as the quickest glance to events as monumental as death have pushed me slowly along to right here, right now. there was no other way to get here. the meandering and erratic path was actually the straightest of lines. take away a handful of angry words, things once thought of as mistakes or regrets, and i'm suddenly a different person with a different history, a different future. that, i would regret. so here i sit. thinking about a person i once called my best friends. a man who might be full of sadness and regret, who might not give a damn, or who might, just might, remember the future and realize that's where its at. . Chris Wright
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I don't so much mind looking back on having lost the election, or having been denied a role in the play, or having had my novel repeatedly rejected, or having been turned down for a date, or recalling laughter at my expense when I attempted some silly challenge.  Those things simply prove that I lived life.  What I do mind, however, is looking back on the lost opportunities where imagined concerns kept me from even trying–lose or win.  I've learned that there is no regret in a brave attempt, only in cowering to fear. . Richelle E. Goodrich
To live with regret is to deny one's life of...
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To live with regret is to deny one's life of living. Gillian Duce
The advance of regret can be so gradual that it...
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The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to say "yesterday I was happy, today I am not. E.m. Forster
Sometimes I wish life was written pencil so we could...
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Sometimes I wish life was written pencil so we could erase it and write it all over again. Thisuri Wanniarachchi
Happiness is a strange thing. It is something I tend...
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Happiness is a strange thing. It is something I tend to recognize only after it has passed, when I realize I miss it. Claire Holden Rothman
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Don't show a friend your gift, or your bag of money if you still want to maintain your relationship, but if nay, go on, and all you'll see is hate and jealousy, and you'll fight with him in the street like a dog and all you'll feel is regret. Michael Bassey Johnson
How to win in life:1 work hard 2 complain less...
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How to win in life:1 work hard 2 complain less 3 listen more 4 try, learn, grow5 don't let people tell you it cant be done6 make no excuses Germany Kent
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He found himself remembering how on one summer morning they two had started from New York in search of happiness. They had never expected to find it, perhaps, yet in itself that quest had been happier than anything he expected forevermore. Life, it seemed, must be a setting up of props around one - otherwise it was disaster. There was no rest, no quiet. He had been futile in longing to drift and dream, no one drifted except to maelstroms, no one dreamed, without his dreams becoming fantastic nightmares of indecision and regret. F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Happiness changes the way you see the world. Auliq Ice
This life-enhancing, happiness-inducing miracle drug that does, in fact, ruthlessly...
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This life-enhancing, happiness-inducing miracle drug that does, in fact, ruthlessly kill its enemies–you’ve guessed it–is gratitude. Auliq Ice
..he wanted her. And at another time, as another man,...
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..he wanted her. And at another time, as another man, he would have her. Without hesitation. As lover.. . as more. Sarah MacLean
Hope is the easiest thing that turn into dust.
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Hope is the easiest thing that turn into dust. Prachi Prangya Agasti
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I look back at Tori, who’s watching him looking worried and poised as if she’s about to rush over and help him at any moment. I can understand how the kid runs into tables when she’s near. There’s something about her that makes you want to stop and stare and not look away. I feel a ping of regret when I remember that all of this is unfortunately temporary. D.L. Hess
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The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd - The longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world’s existence. All these half-tones of the soul’s consciousness create in us a painful landscape, an eternal sunset of what we are. Fernando Pessoa
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Hindsight, I think, is a useless tool. We, each of us, are at a place in our lives because of innumerable circumstances, and we, each of us, have a responsibility (if we do not like where we are) to move along life's road, to find a better path if this one does not suit, or to walk happily along this one if it is indeed our life's way. Changing even the bad things that have gone before would fundamentally change who we are, and whether or not that would be a good thing, I believe, it is impossible to predict. So I take my past experiences.. and try to regret nothing. -Drizzt Do'urden . R.A. Salvatore
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I look out into the water and up deep into the stars. I beg the sparkling lanterns of light to cure me of myself – my past and the kaleidoscope of mistakes, failures and wrong turns that have stacked unbearable regret upon my shoulders. Jennifer Elisabeth
Oh no,
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Oh no, " I said, because if our life is just one endless song about hope and regret, then "oh no" is apparently that song's chorus, the words we always return to. Brock Clarke
I am forever grateful for not knowing– What would have...
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I am forever grateful for not knowing– What would have been. WHAT WILL BE holds none of those bittersweet pangs and it is lit w joy. Erica Goros
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Some of us live in the future, Connected to hurts from our past, If tomorrow is colored by bitter regret, Then today has been painted black Some of us live in the present Connected to gifts from our past, If tomorrow is colored by purposeful thought, the today's masterpiece has been cast. J.A. Conner
Regret is the strongest anchor that latches on to the...
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Regret is the strongest anchor that latches on to the ground, and you carry it within you, it is a feeling quite unlike others for it is despair mingled with hope. Saim .A. Cheeda
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She could now be sad without losing a jot of hope. Nay, rather, the least approach of sadness would begin at once to wake her hope. She regretted nothing that had come, nothing that had gone. She believed more and more that not anything worth having is ever lost; that even the most evanescent shades of feeling are safe for those who grow after their true nature, toward that for which they were made–in other and higher words, after the will of God. . George MacDonald
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18. Your life is before you. Be careful of the choices you make now that you could regret later. This regret is the subject of an old poem whose author has been forgotten. I hope you’ll never have reason to apply it to yourself. Across the fields of yesterday, He sometimes comes to me A little lad just back from play– The boy I used to be. He looks at me so wistfully When once he’s crept within; It is as if he hoped to see The man I might have been. James C. Dobson
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It's unfair." As a rule, life is unfair, " I said. Yeah, but I think I did say some awful things." To Dick?"Yeah."I pulled the car over to the shoulder of the road and turned off the ignition. "That's just stupid, that kind of thinking, " I said, nailing her with my eyes. "Instead of regretting what you did, you could have treated him decently from the beginning. You could've tried to be fair. But you didn't. You don't even have the right to be sorry. . Haruki Murakami
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When the last autumn of Dickens's life was over, he continued to work through his final winter and into spring. This is how all of us writers give away the days and years and decades of our lives in exchange for stacks of paper with scratches and squiggles on them. And when Death calls, how many of us would trade all those pages, all that squandered lifetime-worth of painfully achieved scratches and squiggles, for just one more day, one more fully lived and experienced day? And what price would we writers pay for that one extra day spent with those we ignored while we were locked away scratching and squiggling in our arrogant years of solipsistic isolation? Would we trade all those pages for a single hour? Or all of our books for one real minute? . Dan Simmons
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We suddenly feel fearful and apprehensive, naked in our perishable flesh, and for just a moment we wish we could go back to being stone–crumbling in death rather than rotting, trapped inside an immobile prison of stone rather than reduced to immaterial souls like those that now rattled within our skulls. The moment passes. There is no point in regretting irreversible decisions–one has to live with them, and we try. Ekaterina Sedia
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Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more! Alfred Tennyson
I could kill you a thousand times over Abraham, but...
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I could kill you a thousand times over Abraham, but we would never be even. You took everything I had. Christopher Buecheler
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If only certain things had been preventable, his life would have unfurled in front of him as intended, like a lush Oriental carpet. No surprises, no detours. Just a thick tapestry of days and nights that at the end of his time on earth, he could roll up and proudly claim as his own. Shilpa Agarwal
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No one is adequate to comprehending the misery of my lot! Fate obliges me to be constantly in movement: I am not permitted to pass more than a fortnight in the same place. I have no Friend in the world, and from the restlessness of my destiny I never can acquire one. Fain would I lay down my miserable life, for I envy those who enjoy the quiet of the Grave: But Death eludes me, and flies from my embrace. In vain do I throw myself in the way of danger. I plunge into the Ocean; The Waves throw me back with abhorrence upon the shore: I rush into fire; The flames recoil at my approach: I oppose myself to the fury of Banditti; Their swords become blunted, and break against my breast: The hungry Tiger shudders at my approach, and the Alligator flies from a Monster more horrible than itself. God has set his seal upon me, and all his Creatures respect this fatal mark! . Unknown
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S father's words. But they are as empty on his lips as they feel in my ears. This was has taken everything from him. I see in his eyes how broken he is. how terribly hard he is trying to be his father's son. If he could, he would choose to be back by the campfire we made in the highlands of the Institute. He would return to the days of glory when life was simple, when friends seemed true. But wishing for the past doesn't clean the blood from either of our hands. Pierce Brown
Technically, all tattoos are temporary, even permanent ones.
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Technically, all tattoos are temporary, even permanent ones. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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A dead man is the worst enemy alive, I thought. You can't alter his power over you. You can't alter what you love or owe. And it's too late to ask him for his absolution. He has beaten you all ways. Unknown
I had a dream that I saw shooting stars with...
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I had a dream that I saw shooting stars with you. Two things that will come close to never happening: Seeing shooting stars, and being with you. Karen Quan
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The first law of nature is self-preservation. Cut off that which may harm you. But if it is worth preserving, and is meaningful, nourish it and have no regrets. Ultimately, this is true living and love of self...from within. T.F. Hodge
How I wish I could undo it all … take...
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How I wish I could undo it all … take it all back… All those years I spent unhappy with him …. when I should have been looking for you. Ranata Suzuki
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Original sin and conscious awareness of human fallibility is the perpetual agent of transformation in human affairs. Humankind’s behavior is pathological; it is an admixture of instinct and reason, kindness and cruelty, immorality and seeking redemption. Kilroy J. Oldster
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You can miss places. You can miss people. Just know that what you’re really missing is the way things were. And even if you could go there again…. see them again…. you can’t go back. They’re not the same. You’re not the same. The loss of them changed you. Ranata Suzuki
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The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. Unknown
Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am...
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Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am also call'd No-more, Too-late, Farewell Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Those hours given over to basking in the glow of an imaginedfuture, of being carried away in streams of promise by a love ora passion so strong that one felt altered forever and convincedthat even the smallest particle of the surrounding world wascharged with purpose of impossible grandeur; ah, yes, andone would look up into the trees and be thrilled by the wind-loosened river of pale, gold foliage cascading down and by thehigh, melodious singing of countless birds; those moments, somany and so long ago, still come back, but briefly, like firefliesin the perfumed heat of summer night. Mark Strand
When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret...
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When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction. Criss Jami
Have the courage to rise from the challenges of life...
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Have the courage to rise from the challenges of life like a phoenix from the flames or you'll get lost in the ashes of despair, pain, and regret. Nanette Mathews
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We met one strange summerin a regular tangle of sticky websyou had the air of angels sweet but I--drowned with the damned spiritsin lava oceans fearing your--foreign static frequency and grey-green eyes( I swear they are even if you--think otherwise): stormscalm ones, calmer than my--raging coals, empty and deadyou speak of souls like you believealways an optimist in pessimisticskin of ivory and titanium mesh.. Moonshine Noire
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I will keep no further journal of that same hesternal torch‐lightâ€â€°; and, to prevent me from returning, like a dog, to the vomit of memory, I tear out the remaining leaves of this volume... George Gordon Byron
Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have...
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Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have done but for the things we haven't done Chad Michael Murray
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La luz del pasillo iluminaba débilmente mi rostro que se reflejaba de modo fantasmal en el cristal de la ventanilla y me hacía recordar el que tuve en la infancia, el que naufragó para siempre en la despedida, como si aquel niño se hallara agazapado en algún lugar de mi interior esperando un descuido mío para emerger de nuevo en las aguas fangosas del pasado con su sonrisa feliz y sus ojos brillantes. Unknown
It’s my life and I’m not afraid to LIVE it!...
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It’s my life and I’m not afraid to LIVE it! I would rather experience the ups and downs of a life I have chosen, than to suffer the regret of a life I have settled for. Steve Maraboli
The path you do not take today is the path...
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The path you do not take today is the path you will regret not taking tomorrow. Toni Sorenson
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If the surprise outcome of the recent UK referendum - on whether to leave or remain in the European Union - teaches us anything, it is that supposedly worthy displays of democracy in action can actually do more harm than good. Witness a nation now more divided; an intergenerational schism in the making; both a governing and opposition party torn to shreds from the inside; infinitely more complex issues raised than satisfactory solutions provided. It begs the question 'Was it really all worth it' ? . Alex Morritt
You stayed because you’d invested so much time in your...
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You stayed because you’d invested so much time in your relationship that it would be a waste to walk away. A.L. Michael
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My brain came alight with tenderness for her. I felt so sorry for everything. I yearned to embrace her, kiss her even, to stay with her, always her, my sister, my friend to the end. It was a story after all, even if a sick one. It was completely ours. Hannah Lillith Assadi
Choose to regret nothing in your life. The only thing...
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Choose to regret nothing in your life. The only thing you can change is your future. Avina Celeste
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You know you are getting old when yesterday turns out to be a fading memory you have difficulties recollecting, when today becomes a challenge that is hard to grasp and when tomorrow promises an uncertainty that you dread encountering. Janvier ChouteuChando
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Never go for someone that represents something that is more of a fantasy than reality in this crazy world of lonely people, unless it is for the shortest time possible, and unless you have clearly figured out an exit strategy. Janvier ChouteuChando
You can’t say you love man as an individual if...
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You can’t say you love man as an individual if you have not dealt with the person’s complex personality, his or her unfamiliar habits, disturbing impulses and biological makeup. Janvier ChouteuChando
Unsettling emotions are capable of messing up the most beautiful...
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Unsettling emotions are capable of messing up the most beautiful minds in this world. Janvier ChouteuChando
The depth or humaneness of our love depends on the...
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The depth or humaneness of our love depends on the wideness of our souls. Janvier ChouteuChando
Why do we complicate life, when it was meant to...
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Why do we complicate life, when it was meant to be very simple? Janvier ChouteuChando
Life is so sweet even though it is full of...
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Life is so sweet even though it is full of lies and half truths... Janvier ChouteuChando
Nothing crushes the soul of a father more than the...
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Nothing crushes the soul of a father more than the loss of the beloved son he failed to lavish his love on. Janvier ChouteuChando
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We, at times, criticize ourselves for making immature choices. But if you think with real compassion you will find that those were the right choices at that point of time. Everything happens for a reason, maybe, that was destined. Anyway the best would be to accept whatever happened and move on. Latika Teotia
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I don't regret anything I've ever done in life, any choice that I've made. But I'm consumed with regret for the things I didn't do, the choices I didn't make, the things I didn't say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have to answer to. "What if.." "If only.."" I wonder what would have.." You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days. Trevor Noah
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Questions that begin ‘If I had/if I had not’ have no true answers. You can never know how your actions may have impacted Master Jason’s fate. And if you could know, that knowledge would not change the past. The only good that can come of these musings is that which you have already found: in taking the lessons of the past, such as they may be, to guide your choices in the present. Chris Dee