Popular quotes about Regret! Wisdom and inspiration are here! | page 24
I 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 knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.
Jeff BezosGuilt at least has a purpose; it tells us we've violated some ethical code. Ditto for remorse. Those feelings are educational; they manufacture wisdom. But regret-regret is useless.
Daniel SmithIt's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done.
Billie Joe ArmstrongI tried. I tried to burn that memory of my regret. But I wasnโt dead yet, I was just on my way to dying, and itโs harder to burn memories when youโve still got life left. When youโre alive you have to learn how to live with things like regret.
Christopher BarzakIt is said that if our intention is to help others-even if we are unable to follow it through-we will never have any regret. Regret is a result of trying to make "me" happy.
Sakyong MiphamRegret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Zbigniew BrzezinskiStrauss 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-BurkeA regret understood by no one: the regret to be a pessimist. Itโs not easy to be on the wrong foot with life.
Emile M. CioranA certain critic -- for such men, I regret to say, do exist -- made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.
P. G. WodehouseDo 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'BrienMy world of human beings had perished. I was utterly alone in the world and for friends I had the streets, and the streets spoke to me in that sad, bitter language compounded of human misery, yearning, regret, failure, wasted effort
Henry MillerI regret that he didn't do anything about it, even though he was at least a head taller than me. I wouldn't have minded bleeding at all for one more opportunity to give the kind of Bat Lesson that Finger, Robinson, Sprang and others only dreamed of.
Jim SterankoThe most frequent cause of regret for what we have done is because its effects interfere with what we would do.
Norm MacDonaldAnd it's a necessity [for journalists] to pretend to be competent on every subject, some of which they really do not understand. They are under that necessity, I regret; I'm sorry for them. But to pretend to understand all the things you write about, and habitually to write about things you do not understand, is a very corrupting thing.
Friedrich August von HayekRegret isn't good. Every decision one makes in life is made for a reason or another. Whenever something bad happens, I go, 'This is happening for a reason', or, 'This is going to teach me something'.
Kate WinsletI am more than willing to be judged by the people you claim to represent. I will let them decide what price I should pay. But please do not sit up there with that smug look on your face and expect me to regret the decisions I have made. Because, sir, the truth is I don't.
Jack Bauer...the power of prayer can never be overrated. They who cannot serve God by preaching need not regret. If a man can but pray he can do anything. He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has Heaven and earth at his disposal.
Charles SpurgeonWhen 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 EpsteinMy attitude is born out of necessity. I've made mistakes. I've made decisions I regretted. I know what it's like to live with regret. I live with it everyday. But if I let it take over, I'd never get out of bed in the morning.
Maya BanksI can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It's more important to confirm the least sincere. The clouds get enough attention as it is.
Frank O'HaraHe let out a long sorry sigh and I love that look on his face, that disappointment. I understand now why girls resist,just for that sweet look of regret.
Kathryn StockettYou can never regret anything you do in life. You kind of have to learn the lesson from whatever the experience is and take it with you on your journey forward.
Aubrey O'DayI always wanted to be a doctor and go to art school, but I thought Id regret it if I didnt act.
Kate AshfieldGod does not regret saving you. There is no sin which you commit which is beyond the cross of Christ.
Matt ChandlerMaybe 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.
XaviBed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret.
Charles Caleb ColtonI don't have any regrets, really. What I got out of the sport was more than I ever dreamed was possible. We took some good runs at the Olympics, but the closest we got was third in the Canadian trials. But I can't ever say I regret that, because I loved the career we had. And for me, that was enough.
Colleen JonesThe only possible regret I have is the feeling that I will die without having played enough tennis.
Jean BorotraI regret that there aren't more short stories in other magazines. But in a certain way, I think the disappearance of the short-story template from everyone's head can be freeing. Partly because there's no mass market for stories, the form is up for grabs. It can be many, many things. So the anthology is very much intended for students, but I think we're all in the position of writing students now. Very few people are going around with a day-to-day engagement with the short story.
Lorin SteinWe often regret we did not do otherwise, when that very otherwise would, in all probability, have done for us.
Charles Caleb ColtonOh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused!
Charles DickensOnly one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present. Most of us spend fifty-nine minutes an hour living in the past, with regret for lost joys or shame for things badly done (both utterly useless and weakening) or in a future which we either long for or dread. . . . There is only one minute in which you are alive, this minute, here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what it is-a miracle and unrepeatable.
Storm JamesonI signed contracts when I didn't know what that meant. I thought I'd get residuals off of the shows I've been on: History Channel, Discovery, Dateline, Johnny Carson, etc. It's the only regret I have in life. If I got residuals, I wouldn't be shucking oysters now, though I do love my job.
Steve TrotterDo believe that if we fail to act in time, it will be the single biggest regret any of us has at the end of our lives.
Joseph J. RommPeople 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. BushRegret is what you should fear the most. If something is going to keep you awake at night, let it be the fear of not following your dream.
Chris GuillebeauTo overcome prejudice, we can boldly speak against it and teach our children total intolerance for it. We can get to know one another; when we do so, the stereotypes that impede relationships will fall away. Finally, we can express regret to others for past prejudicial sins and ask God to forgive us and change our thinking.
Beth Moore