Regret doesn't remind us that we did badly, it reminds us that we know that we could do better.

Thirty-three percent of all of our regrets pertain to decisions we made about education.

wrongness always seems to come at us from left field - that is, from outside ourselves. But the reality could hardly be more different. Error is the ultimate inside job. Yes, the world can be profoundly confusing; and yes, other people can mislead or deceive you. In the end, though, nobody but you can choose to believe your own beliefs.

If you Google 'regret and tattoo,' you will get 11.5 million hits.

The inability to experience regret is one of the diagnostic characteristics of sociopaths.

I had drunk our great cultural Kool-Aid about regret, which is that lamenting things that occurred in the past is an absolute waste of time, that we should always look forward and not backward, and that one of the noblest and best things we can do is strive to live a life free of regrets.

Take away the ability of an intelligent, principled, hard-working mind to get it wrong, and you take away the whole thing.