Popular quotes about Regret! Wisdom and inspiration are here! | page 159
I rise today with no small measure of regret, regret because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics, regret because of the indecency of our discourse.
Jeff FlakeI don't believe in mistakes. Never have. I believe that there are a multitude of paths before us and it's just a matter of which way we walk home. I don't believe in regret. If you regret things about your life, than I'll bet that you're not paying attention. Regret is just imagining that you know what would have happened if you took that job in California or married your high-school sweetheart or just looked one more time before you stepped out into the street ... or didn't. But you don't know; you can't possibly know.
Lisa UngerI don't regret anything that I've turned down, and I don't regret anything that I've done, really.
Nick FrostAbove all, I regret that scientific experiments-some of them mine-should have produced such a terrible weapon as the hydrogen bomb. Regret, with all my soul, but not guilt.
Harold UreyI love the evening star. Does that sound foolish? I used to go into the backyard, after sunset, and wait for it until it shone above the dark gum tree. I used to whisper 'There you are, my darling.' And just in that first moment it seemed to be shining for me alone. It seemed to understand this ... something which is like longing, and yet it is not longing. Or regret - it is more like regret.
Katherine MansfieldI am fifty years old and I have never known what it is to love. I can write those words, know them to be true, but feel only the regret that a tone-deaf man must feel because he can't appreicate music, a regret less keen because it is for something never known, not for something lost.
P. D. JamesLet me tell you a few things about regret. There is no end to it. Do you regret the beginning which ended so badly, or just the ending itself?
Janet FitchStrauss admits to being obsessed by his mother's rejection, and with the resultant rents in self-esteem. The Game echoes with disturbingly abusive comments leveled at his adolescent self, a self he feels was unacceptable. With bravado, he expresses regret that he didn't rack up more sexual conquests in his teens; in person, he expresses a truer regret that he was intimidated by life itself.
Antonella Gambotto-BurkeLearning from our mistakes is critical for improving, but even I don't have patience for ranking my regrets. Regret is a negative emotion that inhibits the optimism required to take on new challenges. You risk living in an alternative universe, where if only you had done this or that differently, things would be better. That's a poor substitute for making your actual life better, or improving the lives of others. Regret briefly, analyze and understand, and then move on, improving the only life you have.
Garry KasparovSome folks never try to grow beyond lives that have not realized that potential. And as long as they don't regret that, that's fine. Live and let live. But for those who regret never trying, it's a shame because the Web, as complex as it may seem, makes it all possible
Ken EvoyI regret that after 30 years of writing columns in this market, including ten with this newspaper that I love very much, this local conversation has come to an end. However, I believe that if the newspapers of the country pool their resources, we can send an Arnold-Schwartzenegger-style robot back in time to kill the inventor of the Internet, and then our future will be much brighter.
James LileksMy biggest regret? Well, I got my boobs done in my early 20's and if I had known it would or could possibly have impacted production of milk, I would never have had them done. I love being a mom.
Tori SpellingOkay. That was nice. Clothes. You need clothes before I do something I might not regret. What was your size again, Steve? (Sunshine) Talon. (Talon) Talon. Size. Clothes. Cover him up. Iโm going to go get Talon clothes. Keys. Need keys for car. Purse. Money for clothes. Shoes. Must have shoes to shop and keep feet warm. (Sunshine) What about a coat? It is wintertime. (Talon) Coats are good in the winter. (Sunshine)
Sherrilyn KenyonMy biggest regret in life is that I didn't hit John Denver in the mouth while I has the chance.
Denis LearyTry to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity.
Maya AngelouDo you want to know what I most regret about my youth? That I didn't dream more boldly and demand of myself more impossible things; for all one does in maturity is to carve in granite or porphyry the soap bubble one blew in youth! Oh to have dreamed harder!
Lewis MumfordEvery comedian dreams of hosting 'The Tonight Show' and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second.
Conan O'BrienAs a member of the New York Senate from 1966 to 1989, I voted 12 times to establish the death penalty in New York... I regret my votes in favor of the death penalty.
John R. DunneWhen you are young in this world, you believe that the class of deductive truths about social matters is larger than it turns out to be. [...] I have discovered, to my infinite regret, that most of the serious debates over the basic principles of any political order have an irreducible empirical content.
Richard Allen EpsteinOver the last couple of years, the photos of me when I was a kid... well, they've started to give me a little pang or something - not unhappiness, exactly, but some kind of quiet, deep regret... I keep wanting to apologize to the little guy: "I'm sorry, I've let you down. I was the person who was supposed to look after you, but I blew it: I made wrong decisions at bad times, and I turned you into me.
Nick HornbyEach of us must pay for the slightest damage he inflicts upon a universe created for indifference and stagnation, sooner or later, he will regret not having left it intact.
Emile M. CioranMaybe one small regret is that I never got to play with Paul Scholes - but I was never going to leave Barcelona and he was never going to leave Manchester United.
XaviNVC self-forgiveness: connecting with the need we were trying to meet when we took the action that we now regret.
Marshall B. RosenbergIf you learn from Saint Thรฉrรจse to depend on God alone and serve him with a wholly pure and detached heart, then you can join with your whole soul in singing the jubilant song of the holy Virgin, โMy soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has done great things for me, and holy is his name.โ And like little St. Thรฉrรจse you will be able to say at the end, โI do not regret that I have given myself to love.โ
Edith SteinBed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret.
Charles Caleb ColtonI cannot learn creation from other people; I've got to do it myself. Now, honestly, I regret not studying - I don't know about harmonies, or anything, so if I'm composing a song, it's really hard.
PSYShe was quiet for a moment or two. Then she said: Cruel words are a terrible thing, Quash. Sometimes you regret them. But what's been said cannot be unsaid.
Edward RutherfurdIt took me less than half a lifetime to realize that regret is one of the few guaranteed certainties. Sooner or later everything is touched by it, despite our naive and senseless hope that just this time we will be spared its cold hand on our heart.
Jonathan CarrollI see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him.
Albert EinsteinDo you lend books and DVDs to people? If so, don't you always regret it? All my life I have forced books on to people who have subsequently forgotten all about it. Meanwhile, on my shelves sit many orphaned books loaned to me over the years by trusting, innocent souls - some as long ago as the Seventies.
Lynne TrussI smoked for almost 10 years. I really regret that. Thankfully, I came out on the other side. I hope my lungs are repairing themselves now.
Michelle MonaghanWhen five up express, as is polite, regret at laying a stymie, but rejoice in your heart.
Charles Walter SimpsonEvery day brings a chance to live free of regret and with as much joy, fun, and laughter as you can stand.
Oprah WinfreyWell, you know, the first step I took was to drop the alto and baritone and concentrate on tenor exclusively, a decision I've never really looked back on with any regret. Another thing was that I was 17 when I moved up there, and my listening had really focused on freer music in the previous couple of years- Coltrane was playing with his expanded group, and everyone was listening closely to that, and we were into Shepp and Ayler as well.
David S. WarePeople expect those in authority to take on big problems and to solve them. We had an opportunity to reform Social Security in a way that would have protected people's benefits and created a solvent system. Younger workers would be confident that the money they were putting into the system would be available to them when they retired. It was a missed opportunity. I regret that.
George W. BushOne thing I feel clear about is that it's important not to let your life live you. Otherwise, you end up at forty feeling you haven't really lived. What have I learned? Perhaps to live now, so that at fifty I won't look back upon my forties with regret.
Irvin D. YalomI did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I canโt. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.
Holly BlackTabitha blinked innocently. "Why is your consort speaking to me without my having addressed him first?" she asked Kaia. "Have you not taught him the proper order of things?" So the little man wasn't supposed to speak to the women folk without an invitation? Screw that. "Just stay out of my head, Harpy, or I'll make sure you regret it. By the way, how's the leg?" She hissed at him. Win!
Gena Showalter