Regret
Quotes - Regret is mostly caused by not having done anything
“Ah,
it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!”
―
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
“regret
is mostly caused by not having done anything.”
―
Charles Bukowski, You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
“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 Alder
“Do
you know what it is like,
to
lie in bed awake;
with
thoughts to haunt
you
every night,
of
all your past mistakes.
Knowing
sleep will set it right -
if
you were not to wake.”
―
Lang Leav, Love & Misadventure
“The
only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over
ignorance.”
―
Napoleon Bonaparte
“I've
never regretted it. Questioned it? Sure. But never regretted."
"Is
there a difference?" I ask.
"Absolutely.
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. I questioned
a lot about my relationship with your father. People make spontaneous decisions
based off of their hearts all the time. There's so much more to relationships
than just love.”
―
Colleen Hoover, Slammed
“No
trouble ever got fixed late at night," he said. "Midnight is for
regrets.”
―
Holly Black, Red Glove
“Over
the years I'd lodged him in the permanent past, my pluperfect lover, put him on
ice, stuffed him with memories and mothballs like a hunted ornament
confabulating with the ghost of all my evenings. I'd dust him off from time to
time and then put him back on the mantelpiece. He no longer belonged to earth
or to life. All I was likely to discover at this point wasn't just how distant
were the paths we'd taken, it was the measure of loss that was going to strike
me--a loss I didn't mind thinking about in abstract terms but which would hurt
when stared at in the face, the way nostalgia hurts long after we've stopped
thinking of things we lost and may never have cared for.”
―
André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name
“The
past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do
that. But the future was inevitable.”
―
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
“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, Hope and Despair
“When
you start thinking about what your life was like 10 years ago--and not in
general terms, but in highly specific detail--it's disturbing to realize how
certain elements of your being are completely dead. They die long before you
do. It's astonishing to consider all the things from your past that used to
happen all the time but (a) never happen anymore, and (b) never even cross your
mind. It's almost like those things didn't happen. Or maybe it seems like they
just happened to someone else. To someone you don't really know. To someone you
just hung out with for one night, and now you can't even remember her name.”
―
Chuck Klosterman, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
“My
guilt is an ocean for me to drown in.”
―
Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything
“We
were never lovers, and we never will be, now. I do not regret that, however. I
regret the conversations we never had, the time we did not spend together. I
regret that I never told him that he made me happy, when I was in his company.
The world was the better for his being in it. These things alone do I now
regret: things left unsaid. And he is gone, and I am old.”
―
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake
“This
is what I want so don't be sad.”
―
Nina LaCour, Hold Still
“Never
regret trusting someone. It proves you have a heart. But if he turns out to be
a lying worm ... I'm not going to waste my time crying. Because I am way too
fabulous for that.”
―
Jude Watson, Beyond the Grave
“My
dad used to say that living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved
in reverse.”
―
Jodi Picoult, House Rules
“Happy
moments can turn into pain, given time.”
―
Matt Haig, The Midnight Library
“Four
things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and
the neglected opportunity.”
―
Ted Chiang, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
“Heartbreak
could be lived with if it weren't accompanied by regret.”
―
Laura Kasischke, The Raising
“That
was how she had felt most of her life.
Caught
in the middle. Struggling, flailing, just trying to survive while not knowing
which way to go. Which path to commit to without regret.”
―
Matt Haig, The Midnight Library
“If
you are afraid to take a chance, take one anyway. What you don't do can create
the same regrets as the mistakes you make.”
―
Iyanla Vanzant
“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
“How
quickly he fell; how soon it was over.”
―
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
“I
am grateful for all those dark years, even though in retrospect they seem like
a long, bitter prayer that was answered finally.”
―
Marilynne Robinson
