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Regret Quotes



"I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do."


"The world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork."


"I've lived the life of a man without teeth, he thought about it. A life of a man without teeth. I've never bitten, I've been waiting, keeping myself for later - and now I've just ascertained that I don't have teeth anymore."


"I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done."


"There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance."


"I'd rather regret doing something than not doing something."


"Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret."


"I was wrong when I said that I did not regret the past. I do regret it; I weep for the past love which can never return. Who is to blame, I do not know. Love remains, but not the old love; its place remains, but it is all wasted away and has lost all strength and substance; recollections are still left, and gratitude; but..."


"I have many regrets, and I'm sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret... if you have any sense, and if you don't regret them, maybe you're stupid."


"A man without regrets cannot be cured."



"I did Polyester, and I don't regret one minute of it. It was wonderful."


"As you grow older, you'll find the only things you regret are the things you didn't do."



"He could swear he did not look back, could not-by any optical chance, or in any prism-have seen her physically as he walked away; and yet, with dreadful distinction, he retained forever a composite picture of her standing where he left her. The picture-which penetrated him, through an eye in the back of his head, through his vitreous spinal canal, and could never be lived down, never-consisted of a selection and blend of such random images and expressions of hers that had affected him with a pang of intolerable remorse at various moments in the past."


"The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did."


"It was the only thing I ever really wanted. And that's the sin that can't be forgiven-that I hadn't done what I wanted. It feels so dirty and pointless and monstrous, as one feels about insanity, because there's no sense to it, no dignity, nothing but pain-and wasted pain...why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world-to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage."


"Why should I forget the pastexperience? I can only let go of the pain."


"Many times in life I've regretted the things I've said without thinking. But I've never regretted the things I said nearly as much as the words I left unspoken."


"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."


"His imagination seemed still to exhaust itself in running, before it tried to leap the ditch. While he mused, the fire burned in other brains. Other hands wrote the books he dreamed about. He freely used his good ideas in conversation, and in letters; and they were straightway wrought into the texture of other men's books, and so lost to him for ever."



"You totally ruined my life, you know that?' said Rincewind hotly. 'I could have really made it as a wizard if you hadn't decided to use me as a sort of portable spellbook. I can't remember any other spells, they're all too frightened to stay in the same head as you!"


"There's a small window of opportunity to apologize sometimes after you've terribly wronged someone. It closes. Sometimes forever, but it never opens wide enough again for a good breeze."


"It wouldn't be New Year's if I didn't have regrets."


"The only things you regret are the things you don't do."


"You're going to mess up in life. We're all going to do things and wonder why we did something so stupid. There's going to be times we say things that leave us feeling regretful. We're going to feel mad at ourselves and even shameful at our own actions. Never be too proud to say you're sorry or I love you. These are easy words that strengthen our heart, and give us peace and wisdom."


"I never meant it," he was saying. "Never meant it to happen. Can't stand it,seeing her suffer. Must do something, do something... What do I do? What can I do...?"



"How strange that something so simple could have been instrumental in my decision to ruin one of my most relationships and friendships, and damage another."



"Sudden acquaintance brings repentance."


"I am haunted by my past and by what I must do to ensure my future."


"Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting."
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