Regret
Quotes - Regret is the insight that comes too late
“She
was at that crucial age when a women begins to regret having stayed faithful to
a husband she never really loved, when the glowing sunset colors of her beauty
offer her one last, urgent choice between maternal and feminine love. At such a
moment a life that seemed to have chosen its course long ago is questioned once
again, for the last time the magic compass needle of the will hovers between
final resignation and the hope of erotic experience.”
―
Stefan Zweig, The Burning Secret and other stories
“Regret
and remorse” is a dialectic issue about what has been done, about what should
have been done and about what should not have been done. ( “Island of regret.
Island of remorse” )”
―
Erik Pevernagie
“The
skeletons of the past must not hold back the dream of a new life, even though
fear and regret, guilt and remorse may unsettle us during the effort to give
our future a new home. (“Into a new life”)”
―
Erik Pevernagie
“Sensitive
people either love deeply or they regret deeply. There really is no middle
ground because they live in passionate extremes.”
―
Shannon L. Alder
“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, Slammed
“When
we cannot share our values any longer and our incipient intentions have become
blurry, common understanding may turn into irredeemable misunderstanding. If
the spirit of common perspectives and commitments has irreversibly been broken,
we might patently drift down into suspicion, remorse or regret. As such, shared
initiatives ought to be reasoned and well thought-out to avoid ‘understanding’
becoming ‘misunderstanding’ and ‘hope’ breaking down into ‘heartbreak’.
("The unbreakable code")”
―
Erik Pevernagie
“Everyone
may agree upon the diagnosis, but not everyone may consent to the therapy.
Indeed, for healing, things have to be sacrificed at times and separation or
loss might always be heartbreak and leave scars of remorse or regret.
(“Sorrow”)”
―
Erik Pevernagie
“When
the bonfire of love still smolders in the wake of emotional convulsions, seeds
of regret and remorse may endlessly linger about on the path of life.
("Taken for a ride)”
―
Erik Pevernagie
“Everybody
was sorry. Sorry was easy. Sorry was for suckers.”
―
Gretchen McNeil, Possess
“After
dispelling love or ravaging hate has done its work, we may come into remission
from sorrow or regret and needn’t freak out while creating a soothing space for
cuddling up into the warmth of a new haven. (“Finally unbend.”)”
―
Erik Pevernagie
“In
my terms, I settled for the realities of life, and submitted to its
necessities: if this, then that, and so the years passed. In Adrian's terms, I
gave up on life, gave up on examining it, took it as it came. And so, for the
first time, I began to feel a more general remorse - a feeling somewhere
between self-pity and self-hatred - about my whole life. All of it. I had lost
the friends of my youth. I had lost the love of my wife. I had abandoned the
ambitions I had entertained. I had wanted life not to bother me too much, and
had succeeded - and how pitiful that was.”
―
Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
“Forget
regret, or life is yours to miss. No other path, no other way, no day but
today.”
―
Jonathan Larson, Rent
“If
the portraits of our absent friends are pleasant to us, which renew our memory
of them and relieve our regret for their absence by a false and empty
consolation, how much more pleasant are letters which bring us the written
characters of the absent friend.”
―
Héloïse d'Argenteuil, The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
“Marco
opened the walkway gate just as a sprightly grey lizard skittered across the
stone path. A bougainvillea vine laden with a riot of purple blooms scaled the
right side of the house, and the heady scent of gardenias saturated the air.”
―
Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage
“How
to win in life:
1
work hard
2
complain less
3
listen more
4
try, learn, grow
5
don't let people tell you it cant be done
6
make no excuses”
―
Germany Kent
“If
you had to relive your life exactly as it was – same successes and failures,
same happiness, same miseries, same mixture of comedy and tragedy – would you
want to? Was it worth it?”
―
Gavin Extence, The Universe Versus Alex Woods
“I
just wish I’d asked you sooner. We could’ve had ages . . . months . . . years
maybe. . . .”
―
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
“Regret
is the insight that comes too late. Too little and too late. Too little empathy
and too late awareness. ("Island of regret - Island of remorse." )”
―
Erik Pevernagie
“Regret
was the worst.
Regret
was sour and bitter, and it tasted so close to the truth she had to fight
sinking into it.”
―
Stephanie Garber, Once Upon a Broken Heart
“My
jealousy is a living thing. Shifting, changing, growing. Like my rage and my
mother's regret.”
―
Katja Millay, The Sea of Tranquility
“The
moment she was cursed, I lost her. Once it wears off- soon- she will be
embarrassed to remember things that she said, things she did, things like this.
No matter how solid she feels in my arms, she is made of smoke.”
―
Holly Black, Red Glove
“I
don’t regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure.
I
did it to the full, as one should do everything that one does. There was no
pleasure I did not experience.”
―
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis
“Oh
my God, what if you wake up some day, and you're 65, or 75, and you never got
your memoir or novel written, or you didn't go swimming in those warm pools and
oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big
comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and
people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of
imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were
a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen.”
―
Anne Lamott
“Don’t
you think it’s actually harder for you . . . to adapt, I mean? Because you’ve
done all that stuff?’
‘Are
you asking me if I wish I'd never done it?’
‘I’m
just wondering if it would have been easier for you. If you’d led a smaller
life. To live like this, I mean.’
‘I
will never, ever regret the things I've done. Because most days, if you’re
stuck in one of these, all you have are the places n your memory that you can
go to.’ He smiled. It was tight, as if it cost him. ‘So if you’re asking me
would I rather be reminiscing about the view of the caste from the minimart, or
that lovely row of shops down off the roundabout, then, no. My life was just
fine, thanks.”
―
Jojo Moyes, Me Before You
