When I was twenty-four I turned down a job in another city because I was scared — scared of the move, scared of failing somewhere new, scared of leaving the comfortable little life I’d built. I told myself I’d go “next year.” Next year came and went, and the job went to someone else, and for a long time I carried that decision around like a stone in my pocket, taking it out every few months to turn it over and feel its weight.
It took me years to understand that the stone wasn’t the decision itself. It was the story I’d wrapped around it — that I was the kind of person who played it safe, who let fear make the big calls. Regret is rarely about what happened. It’s about what we decided it meant about us.
These sixty quotes are for anyone still carrying a stone or two. Some are about the ache of it, some are about setting it down. All of them come from the same hard-won belief: you can’t go back, but you can absolutely go forward lighter.
A man without regrets cannot be cured.” – Aristotle
A meaningful apology is one that communicates three R’s: regret, responsibility, and remedy.” – Beverly Engel
A perpetrator may have hurt someone for a few minutes of his/her life and may even regret it, but the survivor lives with the pain, triggers, shame and fear for a lifetime.” – Mary E. DeMuth
A thorough inspection of someone you believed to be loveable will send you back into your shell if all you saw in their life was all bullshit.” – Michael Bassey Johnson
A thousand times I was ready to regret and take back my rash statement – yet it had been the truth.” – Hermann Hesse
Ah, it’s my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!” – Fernando Pessoa
Already she could feel the stunning weight of a lifetime of regret for letting him go, and she knew that it was enough to bury her alive.” – Anna Godbersen
Always be truthful and you will have fewer visits from regret, guilt or fear.” – Suzy Kassem
And at that moment Jude thought something that he would never forgive himself for. He wished that he had never met any of them.” – Melina Marchetta
And I want to tell you about everything but I can’t because I couldn’t stand for you to have that look on your face all the time. I just need you to look at me and think that I’m normal. I just really need that from you.” – Nina LaCour
And on that evening when we grow older still we’ll speak about these two young men as though they were two strangers we met on the train and whom we admire and want to help along. And we’ll want to call it envy, because to call it regret would break our hearts.” – André Aciman
Any thoughts of guilt, any feelings of regret, had faded. The desert had baked them out.” – Stephen King
Are guilt and regret not messages from inside of us, letting us know that our moral compasses have been recalibrated and are pointing in the right direction?” – Rhian J. Martin
At funerals, people say things about a dead person that they should have told them while they were still alive.” – Wayne Gerard Trotman
At the crossroad in my life, I didn’t know which way to go. I just mindlessly choose a random direction… then, after regretting my decision I tried to retrace my steps. However, without even realizing it the sun had already set.” – Nobuyuki Fukumoto
At the end of your life what you will regret the most is not the mistakes that you made – what you will regret the most are the things that you never tried.” – Moffat Machingura
At the end, regrets from not following what others said will be less than the joys from following what your heart said.” – Amit Kalantri
Because if there is something to be ashamed of, it is not stupid or bad things we did, it is not learning from them.” – Cave Man
Being safe doesn’t mean you won’t be sorry.” – Katerina Stoykova Klemer
But guilt never travels alone. Guilt begets regret. Regret begets shame. And the three cling to us mercilessly. At first we embrace them out of a sense of obligation, only to discover that they are not our allies. They will suffocate and kill us if they can have their way.” – Dan DeWitt
But if she doesn’t learn nostalgia now, how will I ever teach her regret? I have to get her ready for the future.” – Keetje Kuipers
But it’s not easy, realising how we fucked it all up. And that turns out to be the hardest thing to live with, not the regret or the fear, but the realisation that the edge is so close to where we live.” – Jess Walter
But regret is the things we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to.” – Trevor Noah
But you know all about that, being sorry and having no words to say something when you know you should but you just can’t” – Heather Gudenkauf
Choose the path that’s right by you. Always. It may end in misery – a small price to pay. No amount of hardship compares to the emptiness of regret. Of never having lived at all.” – Jenna Moreci
Choose to regret nothing in your life. The only thing you can change is your future.” – Avina Celeste
Deciding not to let worry and regret get under your skin can be the most freeing decision yet!” – Jodi Aman
Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it.” – Eliza Tabor
Do I regret it? Would I take it back, if I could? Tell her to resign herself to home and hearth, to give up her wandering ways? It depends which weighs more: a life, or a soul.” – Alix E. Harrow
Do not feel sad for your tears as rocks never regret the waterfalls” – Munia Khan
Do not regret, at unfair people. Just stay fair to show yourself to be apart from them.” – Ehsan Sehgal
Do not try to take my regret from me.” – Madeline Miller
Do what needs to be done today so tomorrow will have no regrets .” – H.D. Howard
Don’t give yourself the opportunity to regret” – Isabella Poretsis
Don’t let the painting of your life be blurred with regret and unspoken words, that’s been resting on your lips for so very long. Say what you have to say and find peace. The colors of the rainbow are yours if you’d only set yourself free.” – Ron Baratono
Don’t let the rain drive you to the wrong shelter; the shade can turn out to be your protector and also your destroyer, and sometimes the rain is the perfect protector from the rain.” – Michael Bassey Johnson
Don’t let things drag on longer than they should. Before you know it, it’ll be too late and you’ll be full of regret.” – Lindsey-Anne Pontes
Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – John Wooden
Don’t live in regret over missed opportunities, for if you do, you will miss even more.” – Charbel Tadros
Don’t live in regret! It is such a useless idea. Use the memory to prevent us do bad things! Regret is a childish wish, or an empty hope, trying to revise the bitter memory of the past.” – Toba Beta
Best Regret Quotes
Don’t measure your life or your regret. Just live your life with love at its best.” – Debasish Mridha
Don’t regret that your life is too easy, mine is rather easy too; I think that life is pretty long and that the time will arrive soon enough in whichanother shall gird thee and carry thee where thou wouldst not.” – Vincent van Gogh
Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” – Roy T. Bennett
Droll thing life is – that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself – that comes too late – a crop of inextinguishable regrets.” – Joseph Conrad
Energy spent regretting a decision was best redirected toward addressing its consequences.” – Max Gladstone
Even if you regret, it will not reverse what happened. Rethink, relearn and replan, so you will not repeat what happened.” – Gift Gugu Mona
Everybody was sorry. Sorry was easy. Sorry was for suckers.” – Gretchen McNeil
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.” – Erik Pevernagie
For much of my life, I existed in a condition of regret, a regret that was contemporaneous with experience, and which sometimes preceded experience.” – Greg Baxter
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these:It might have been!” – John Greenleaf Whittier
For so many lifetimes, he lived in a state of perpetual regret, returning obsessively and destructively to better times, to moments he wished he could change. Most of those lives he lived staring into the rearview mirror.” – Blake Crouch
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other path, no other way, no day but today.” – Jonathan Larson
Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.” – Ted Chiang
Grief is freeing, but regret is the cul de sac of despair.” – Dan B. Allender
Grief, regret, pain, and of course anger. Another loss. And when you compare this one loss to the hundreds and maybe thousands that occur people stop thinking they matter. It does matter though. Every loss matters.” – Natalie Valdes
Happiness is a strange thing. It is something I tend to recognize only after it has passed, when I realize I miss it.” – Claire Holden Rothman
Have I thought long to see this morning’s face, And doth it give me such a sight as this?” – William Shakespeare
Have the courage to rise from the challenges of life like a phoenix from the flames or you’ll get lost in the ashes of despair, pain, and regret.” – Nanette Mathews
He didn’t know what exactly he wanted to say – I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it – only the ever-deepening regret at how things were turning out between them, the desperate and impossible desire to go back to the way things had been.” – Celeste Ng
He regretted only one thing: that he had not met her sooner, that he had not known her every day of his life.” – Jhumpa Lahiri
He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret.” – Charles Frazier
Heartbreak could be lived with if it weren’t accompanied by regret.” – Laura Kasischke
Hindsight teaches us that it is better to wait than to regret.” – Andrena Sawyer
His heart missed a beat and never regretted the lovely loss.” – Vladimir Nabokov
How we begin and how we end any relationship is a product of planning, fortuity, and personality. Many enterprises commenced in good faith spiral into confusion, discord, and disarray, generate turmoil and corruption, sunburn the sensitive parties, and conclude in a cesspool of regret and animosity.” – Kilroy J. Oldster
Hurting people you love is the heaviest kind of regret.” – Charlotte Eriksson
I am at a point where I really don’t know anymore if I am an introvert or an extrovert. Avoid going out and then I regret later.” – Nitya Prakash
I am cold from regret.” – Jill Alexander Essbaum
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
I could kill you a thousand times over Abraham, but we would never be even. You took everything I had.” – Christopher Buecheler
I did wonder if I’d have cause to rue my action. Now I believe it can safely be filed under necessary regrets.” – Anthony Ryan
I do not regret the things that I do not reach to grasp and enjoy. I consider that the will of God is so, may he gives other good ones.” – Ehsan Sehgal
I don’t buy ‘regret’ idea. I need life’s good lesson.” – Toba Beta
I don’t do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It’s too late for regrets. You’ve already done it, haven’t you? You’ve lived your life. No point wishing you could change it.” – Lemmy Kilmister
I don’t regret anything I was before because I still am. I only regret not having loved you. Put your hands in mine And let’s be quiet, surrounded by life.” – Alberto Caeiro
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
I don’t regret my past, I just regret the time I’ve wasted with the wrong people.” – Nitya Prakash
I don’t think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.” – Boris Pasternak
I guess you have to decide which you’ll regret more, missing the world you know or never exploring the one that scares you.” – Kelly Siskind
I had a dream that I saw shooting stars with you. Two things that will come close to never happening: Seeing shooting stars, and being with you.” – Karen Quan
Regret Quotes About Life
I had spent so much time floundering beneath the weight of regret, thinking that if I had done something differently, he might still be alive. But I suppose all of us are doomed to think this way. We are, after all, the stars of our own stories.” – Sarah Nicole Smetana
I have learned, painfully, over the years that the things I regret in my life are not errors of judgement but failures of feeling.” – Jeanette Winterson
I have stared into the light and you are all my shadows.” – Mike Carey
I have wasted most of the time on social media in doing unnecessary but I don’t regret because I know one day I will return to my originality. I am me. I am me.” – Ankit Samrat
I just wish I’d asked you sooner. We could’ve had ages… months… years maybe…” – J.K. Rowling
I lay my regrets to rest in my poetry.” – Vineet Raj Kapoor
I miss fragrance of freedom Wafting from trees Raw soil without grease Of regrets beneath me.” – Suyasha Subedi
I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.” – W. Somerset Maugham
I rarely regret my action but I often regret my inaction.” – Avina Celeste
I realize I should be mortified that Past Hazel was so dramatically inappropriate, but it’s not like I’m that much better now, and regret isn’t really my speed anyway.” – Christina Lauren
I regret that I should leave this world without again beholding him.” – James Monroe
I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations – one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it – you will regret both.” – Soren Kierkegaard
I thought of the things that had happened to me over the years, and of how little I had made happen.” – Julian Barnes
I touched curiosity, I kissed sin,I felt regret, And I was forgiven.But life won’t let me forget.” – J.A. Anum
I want to undo this. To make it right. But I have no idea how. I don’t seem to know how to open up to people without getting the door slammed in my face. So I do nothing.” – Gayle Forman
I was so blinded by her talent that I didn’t recognize the tremendous pain behind her work. She gave me hundreds of images, so many chances to see that she was in trouble. I failed her.” – Nina LaCour
I would rather prefer a beautiful sin than a regretful virtue.” – Meghna Sodha
I wouldn’t have missed a single minute of it. Not for the whole world.” – Stephen King
I wouldn’t waste a day, not an hour, not a moment. Take what you want and damn caution. Live, enjoy. Feed ravenously. Or the biggest regret you’ll have at the end of your life is wasted time.” – Nora Roberts
If I weighed my actions further in the past, the regret might kill me.” – Flynn Berry
If I’m happy because of something – even if that thing persists – my happiness in time vanishes. But if I regret something or become sad about something that sadness or regret can follow me for many years, maybe even to my deathbed.” – Cave Man
If I’m sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow?” – José Saramago
If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.” – Mercedes Lackey
If we really look at our actions with eyes of love, we see that our lives can be more straightforward, simpler, less sculpted by regret and fear, more in alignment with our deepest values.” – Sharon Salzberg
If you act with love, you won’t regret.” – Freequill
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
If you can’t beat them, leave them. Good morals do not improve bad association. It’s a reverse that will only drive to regret.” – Vincent Okay Nwachukwu
If you erased your past mistakes, you could purge your regrets with them, but you’d also wipe any lessons learned and any subsequent maturity gained. Don’t regret the minefields you stepped into, just try and learn not to step into the same one twice.” – Stewart Stafford
If you haven’t done everything possible to live the life you want to live, you will often visit the Land of Regret!” – Mehmet Murat ildan
If you regret what you did then learn from it and get over. No point looking back. Right people will find you on your way…” – Nitya Prakash
If you’ve truly tried your best, you’ve got nothing to regret.” – Pep Talk Radio
In Isabel’s mind today there was nothing clear; there was a confusion of regrets, a complication of fears.” – Henry James
In order to minimize regret, maximize your respect of time and it’s limitations.” – Jonathan Heimberg
Insomnia haunted me like regret” – K. Weikel
It had taken thirty years for me to understand that regrets do not dissipate, they do not abate into sadness – they harden until they have formed into a small fist that often rests quietly in the pit of your stomach but that can suddenly, and without warning, land a punch so powerful you are left doubled over in pain, gasping for breath.” – Kate Mulgrew
It is both a joy and regret to learn more about the endless potential of the Universe because it forces me consider all the possibilities I shall never see.” – C.A.A. Savastano
It is now the dog days of August, the breathless days when a person tallies their regrets.” – Kilroy J. Oldster
It is the bungled crime that brings remorse.” – P.G. Wodehouse
It seems there is no shortage of regret among the young – but then, they are young, they make mistakes. They have time to correct them and the courage to admit their failings aloud.” – Gregory Maguire
It was a hideous discovery for the stranger to make – that a man at the end of his days was capable of inflicting pain as the rawest, loudest youth. With so little time left, the stranger added one more item to his long, long list of regrets.” – Kurt Vonnegut
Famous Regret Quotes
It was no good to look back, to apologize for what had happened, or to wonder what could have been different.” – Lily Blake
Its better to regrets what you did, than regret what you didn’t do.” – William Nolan
It’s always the idle habits you acquire which you will regret. Father said that. That Christ was not crucified: he was worn away by a minute clicking of little wheels. That had no sister.” – William Faulkner
It’s been said that there are only two pains in life, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret, and that discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” – Anthony Robbins
It’s not the spirits that call to us,’ he murmured.It is our own failures and regrets we see.” – Julie Kagawa
It’s sad knowing that after something happens, every option to change the past is gone.” – Tim Allen
It’s too hard to forget the weight of shame that a pair of eyes can put down on you.” – Rasmenia Massoud
It’s very painful when circumstances don’t allow you to act as per your nature. It may force you to change your nature. If you keep shame, guilt, regret etc. away, this change can be a transformation of caterpillar into butterfly.” – Shunya
I’d never understood the injunction not to regret anything, couldn’t see how that wasn’t cowardice…” – China Miéville
I’m too old to recover, too narrow to forgive myself.” – Lillian Hellman
I’ve come to accept that parts of life are constant, that just because something happens on two different days doesn’t make it a goddamn miracle.” – Kevin Powers
I’ve got a bad case of the 3:00 am guilts – you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn’t do right? Because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing.” – D.D. Barant
Leadership is about taking people from a good place to a better place where they would not regret to be.” – Israelmore Ayivor
Let’s not worry. It’s too late now. It will always be too late, fortunately!” – Albert Camus
Life is such a chance that lies in your hands; beautify and enjoy or lose, and regret.” – Ehsan Sehgal
Live is for living, not regretting.” – David Willim Lemke
Look forward. Every regret, every mournful thought, takes so much out of your life.” – Prentice Mulford
Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am also call’d No-more, Too-late, Farewell” – Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Love yourself; you won’t regret it ever.” – M.F. Moonzajer
Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.” – Katherine Mansfield
Man, don’t ever be sorry you don’t want to kill someone.” – Michael Grant
Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.” – Arthur Miller
Maybe the problem with holding onto memories so tightly is that they don’t allow us to make room for the future. Maybe the gentle decay of the past is a blessing that dulls the sharp blade of regret, allowing the possibility of rebirth.” – Ryan Galloway
Men didn’t have any idea about regret before God felt so once after created us.” – Toba Beta
Mess me around and you will regret it.” – Steven Magee
Monitor and control every passing day so as to live without regrets” – Sunday Adelaja
Most love songs were inspired, not by love, but by loneliness, regretfulness, or horniness.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
My biggest regret is what I didn’t say… (Jake)” – Keary Taylor
My dad used to say that living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved in reverse.” – Jodi Picoult
My handling of the situation with Jake proved that I was the same girl from eight years ago. I’d just gained a stone and lost my love for Shayne Ward.” – Lynsey James
My jealousy is a living thing. Shifting, changing, growing. Like my rage and my mother’s regret.” – Katja Millay
My phone is on my bed, whispering in my ear like a bottle of scotch to a recovering alcoholic, while the rain continues cackling at me through my window.” – Katja Millay
Never pass up the chance to be kissing someone. It’s the worst kind of regret.” – Patrick Ness
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
Never REJECT yourself due to the sins you have committed. REGRET will do nothing; REPENT and do something!” – Israelmore Ayivor
No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future” – Umar ibn Al-Khattab
No human on his deathbed ever regretted having spent too much time with his children.” – George Stamatis
No matter how sweet is smells, if you know it will give you a discomfort later, don’t even attempt to taste it. Discipline yourself to stay out of sin!” – Israelmore Ayivor
No pain is unbearable,” he said,except that of regret.” – Jan Cox Speas
No time for better words, no time to unsay anything.” – C.S. Lewis
Short Regret Quotes for Instagram
No trouble ever got fixed late at night,” he said.Midnight is for regrets.” – Holly Black
No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found.” – Samuel Beckett
Not everything’s perfect, especially in the beginning. And it’s all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It’s when you feel it all the time and can’t do anything about it… that’s when you get into trouble.” – Sarah Dessen
Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are,It might have been.” – Kurt Vonnegut
Of course, my dear, I cannot, how could I, altogether regret what has happened.” – Iris Murdoch
One can’t reason away regret-it’s a bit like falling in love, falling into regret.” – Graham Greene
One dies without regret if there is one in the whole world abosom friend,” or one whoknows his heart.” – Lin Yutang
One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” – Shannon L. Alder
Only five seconds of thought stand between you and a crap-ton of regret.” – Farah Naz Rishi
Only sometimes when we pick and choose among the rules we discover later that we have set aside something precious in the process.” – Helen Simonson
Only the Mother can regret: to be depressed, it is said, is to resemble the Mother as I imagine her regretting me eternally” – Roland Barthes
Opportunities are rare in this life, and fairness, rarer still. So, when you discover a fair opportunity, go after as if it were your last because it very well might be.” – Joel T. McGrath
Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have done but for the things we haven’t done” – Chad Michael Murray
Our dreams are never realized and as soon as we see them betrayed we realize that the intensest joys of our life have nothing to do with reality. No sooner do we see them betrayed than we are consumed with regret for the time when they glowed within us. And in this succession of hopes and regrets our life slips by.” – Natalia Ginzburg
Past is like a poison – it kills you, slowly, but it definitely does.” – Akash Rathod
Pay careful attention to those ideas that keep coming back to your mind. Ideas left lifeless are ghosts that don’t just haunt you, they bite.” – Richie Norton
People always say in the end you only regret the choices you didn’t make but I really think you also regret the choices you were foolish enough to make.” – Melizena
People think it’s too hard to do the extra work that’s needed to excel. But what’s really hard is living with the regret of knowing you could have done more.” – Dan Blanchard
Practice the pause. Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you’re about to react harshly and you’ll avoid doing and saying things you’ll later regret.” – Lori Deschene
Procrastination is driven by a presumption of regret.” – Rayvern White
Put my happy song on play While I am here dancing in the aches Of all those bridges I’ve courageously once burned With no hesitation in my brains Nor Regrets in my heart…” – Samiha Totanji
Recovery is hard. Regret is harder.” – Brittany Burgunder
Regret celebrates the things you did wrong. Why focus on the past when the only place you have any power is right here, right now.” – Akiroq Brost
Regret comes from impulsive actions.” – Giovannie de Sadeleer
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” – Sydney J. Harris
Regret is a slow and silent killer, a cancer of the soul” – Paddick Van Zyl
Regret is a vehicle you choose to drive or leave behind on the hard shoulder of life.” – Stewart Stafford
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
regret is mostly caused by not having done anything.” – Charles Bukowski
Regret is one of those emotions that outpunches reality: Even if you 100 percent could not have done things differently, it still pops up and takes a jab.” – Abbi Waxman
Regret is one the scariest words in any language and success is one of the most beautiful ones. What are you waiting for?” – Farshad Asl
Regret is the strongest anchor that latches on to the ground, and you carry it within you, it is a feeling quite unlike others for it is despair mingled with hope.” – Saim .A. Cheeda
Regret 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. Be afraid of settling.” – Chris Guillebeau
Regret isn’t a negative. Wishing we could do better isn’t bad… And if you let go of that regret, if you forget about consequence, then what are you? Who are you?” – Emma Vieceli
Regret not the past, but learn from it.” – Ari Gunzburg
Regret swallows broken men whole. Acceptance builds them anew.” – Sarah Noffke
Regret, albeit raw and relentless, is almost always unremarkable.” – Kris Kidd
Regret, to no end, in every hour of a long life. What beautiful work will redeem the heartbeats of a living creature. And what use to confess deeds that last forever?” – Czesław Miłosz
Regret: the most corrosive horror.” – Adam Nevill
Regret; The saddest word in the English language.” – Tonya Hurley
Inspirational Regret Quotes
Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently!” – Charles Dudley Warner
Regrets came up and asked me if I’d like to own them. Declined them for the most part but took a few just so I wouldn’t leave this relationship empty handed.” – Steve Toltz
Regrets for yesterday can never find true forgiveness today; forgiveness today does not live in yesterdays regrets.” – John M. Sheehan
Regrets, it seems, are easy to realise when you’re dying.” – G.M.T. Schuilling
Robert had taught him to keep his thoughts in the present or near future, for as Robert had told him, To dwell in the past is to live in regret.” – Raymond E. Feist
Self-reflection is a much kinder teacher than regret is. Prioritize yourself by making a habit of it.” – Andrena Sawyer
Sensitive people either love deeply or they regret deeply. There really is no middle ground because they live in passionate extremes.” – Shannon L. Alder
She could not bring herself to turn away from the night sky, for the stars and the blackness were the only escape she had when old faded memories returned to haunt her.” – Narayan Liu
Should I be thankful or regretful that my only idea of love is you?” – Dawn Lanuza
Smiling at an echo of his voice on my mind’s stage, I felt the void of all I hadn’t said.” – Aspen Matis
So I wasn’t there when he died, which I regret. But after a certain point in life a person has to dunk her regrets in the morning coffee, just like biscuits.” – Natalia Ginzburg
So yes, I say things I regret constantly, and I just can’t help it.” – Kathy Griffin
Some details escaped her, but the regret remained with her.” – Gustave Flaubert
Some of our children are our justifications and some are but our regrets.” – Khalil Gibran
Sometimes I wish life was written pencil so we could erase it and write it all over again.” – Thisuri Wanniarachchi
Sometimes we find we love things we never thought we wanted. And then we regret that we never wanted them at all. It’s the fear of change, I think, and dread of the unknown.” – Courtney M. Privett
Sometimes you have to choose what kind of regret you can live with.” – Stacey Kade
Sometimes your mind and your heart want different things, and you know your heart is a liar.” – Surya Raj
Sorry I painted the word ‘twat’ on your garage door.” – David Shrigley
Speak when you’re angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.” – Lawrence J. Peter
Spring is coming. Time for some cleaning. Remove all the self-doubt, worry, jealousy, regret, anger, guilt, or any other negative emotions that are holding you back from your happy, fulfilled life.” – Nanette Mathews
The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to sayyesterday I was happy, today I am not.” – E.M. Forster
The biggest regret is regret itself.” – Maria Lehtman
The cries of the dead are terrible indeed; you should try not to hear them.” – Philip K. Dick
The critical question about regret is whether experience led to growth and new learning. Some people seem to keep on making the same mistakes, while others at least make new ones. Regret and remorse can be either paralyzing or inspiring.” – Mary Catherine Bateson
The fear of making a mistake is a gigantic mistake.” – Prem Jagyasi
The first reaction is surely the most natural one, but not always the most correct one; thereupon, the invention of apologies.” – Criss Jami
The humiliation that Jane had felt turned to something else – grief perhaps, or regret. Regret that she had not known how to act with a boy, regret that she had not been wiser.” – Beverly Cleary
The key is, in that moment of time, to be completely there, if not, you will be left behind, with regret, and forever wondering.” – Robert Black
The mistakes I’ve made are dead to me. But I can’t take back the things I never did.” – Jonathan Safran Foer
The most regretful behavior always leaches from a wound to our sanctimonious pride.” – Kilroy J. Oldster
The motel smelled like rust and regret.” – Katherine McIntyre
The only things I regret, and the only things I’ll ever regret are things I didn’t do. In the end, that’s what we mourn. The paths we didn’t take. The people we didn’t touch.” – Scott Spencer
The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
The past can only be present when we hold on to regret.” – J.R. Incer
The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable.” – Oscar Wilde
The path you do not take today is the path you will regret not taking tomorrow.” – Toni Sorenson
The regret of unfinished business is particularly oppressive, even haunting in its oppressive grief.” – Donna Lynn Hope
The regrets are like yesterday: they announce only the future.” – Charles de Leusse
The Regretted has learned.” – Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel
Regret Quotes About Love
The repentance for my sins against morality was enough to blacken my soul.” – Ayshen Irfan
The scariest thing in life is not fear itself but rather the regret of not overcoming fear.” – Avina Celeste
The sympathy based on motives, indeed, leaves its point of the identity mark, in that the doubts, take place as a natural process, and lead to any determination. Such sympathy meets regret. The wise people keep them away from that.” – Ehsan Sehgal
There are so many things that I want so badly to tell you but I just can’t.” – Nina LaCour
There are two kinds of guilt: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.” – Sabaa Tahir
There is more to life than making money and fucking someone else. If you are scared of dying, then you have lots of regrets.” – Kambiz Shabankare
There is no better time to regret, no matter how much you have failed or improved your situation.” – Kangoma Kindembo
There is no more disastrous mania, no more dangerous whim, than the speculation over roads not taken.” – Juan Gabriel Vásquez
There is nothing to be found in the past if you only look there with regret.” – Avina Celeste
There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” – Charles Dickens
There’s always that one person you regret giving your number to.” – Nitya Prakash
There’s no fear or regret but no elation or sense of triumph either. It’s just a job that had to be done.” – Irvine Welsh
There’s no such thing as yesterday, he thought dully. Memory is just today, happening over and over again, stamped indelibly with regret.” – Helen Maryles Shankman
They ooze blood out of their wounds and live inside their regret.” – Paullina Simons
They were involved in that awkward procedure of getting to unknow each other.” – John Irving
Things that you are unlikely to regret: exercise, eating healthily, challenging yourself, making a plan, being kind.” – Freequill
Things you have now, things you’ve lost. People who’re near by, people who’ve gone far away. No matter what you choose, truth is, both regret and reluctance are going to follow you around. You just have to make sure you don’t make excuses to yourself down the road.” – Kentaro Miura
This is what I want so don’t be sad.” – Nina LaCour
This mournful and restless sound was a fit accompaniment to my meditations.” – Joseph Conrad
This was the first time I had not just rushed in and followed my instincts, and it wasn’t working out. I was beginning to actively regret it.” – Gwenda Bond
To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a Beast!” – William Shakespeare
To live with regret is to deny one’s life of living.” – Gillian Duce
To live without any regret is to act right.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
To spend my days regretting what I’m not is to rob me of the energy I need to celebrate who I am.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
Today is a new day. Don’t let thoughts from past regrets ruin your day today.” – Avina Celeste
Truly there are different kinds of pain. But the most agonizing is the pain of regret, for which there is no lasting relief and no remedy.” – Richelle E. Goodrich
Trust too much Hope too much Love way too much Take the pain. Because regret hurts worse then anything else.” – Jamie Holt Sherfy
Was there ever a death that involved no regret? More often than not, what he first heard in their moment of grief was the word ‘should.” – Elisabeth Hyde
We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it’s like chasing clouds.” – Libba Bray
We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.” – Steve Maraboli
We don’t have to be defined by the things we did or didn’t do in our past. Some people allow themselves to be controlled by regret. Maybe it’s a regret, maybe it’s not. It’s merely something that happened. Get over it.” – Pittacus Lore
We never regret the love we give, We regret giving it to the wrong people…” – Samiha Totanji
We prefer our way into things such as regret, unhappiness, and anxiety.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
We rarely deserve the lives we lead. We pay for them however we can, be it with money, guilt or regret.” – Alice Feeney
We should have taken our chances back then, when we were young and beautiful and didn’t even know it.” – Lois McMaster Bujold
What a strange feeling to regret something even as I did it – the sheer denial that masked itself as courage, the rush of relief once the decision was final, and the cavernous sorrow that sank in within the hour.” – Laney Wylde
What Cadfael did not regret, he found grave difficulty in remembering to confess.” – Ellis Peters
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded sensibly, reservedly, mildly.” – George Saunders
What if is the worst kind of regret” – Jamie Beck
What was meant today, It’s a regret tomorrow.” – Motherly Love
Sad Regret Quotes
When dealing with love and relationship. Hurting and betraying a great woman can lead you to a painful life of regret.” – Angel Moreira
When I was young, I spent my days and nights trying to impress future generations. I spent them. They’re gone. All because I was deathly afraid of being forgotten. And then came the regret. The worst things of all worst things.” – Miguel Syjuco
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
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.” – Erik Pevernagie
When the time is right, life will have a meaning. When the time is right world will be bright again. When the time is right, things will fall into place. Just remember, never regret.” – Akash Lakhotia
When you love someone from a distance, so deep and profound that it hurts, you regretfully feel as if you’re going to lose her before you could hold her in your arms.” – Danny Castillones Sillada
When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything – that is the definition of conviction.” – Criss Jami
Whenever I feel guilty about something when I was young, my mother would say- How do you make up for it? What’s a thing you could do that would make you feel better?” – Rebecca Makkai
Whoever said, ”Don’t regret what once made you smile” – never went out with my ex…” – Nitya Prakash
You can’t regret the life you didn’t lead.” – Junot Díaz
You know I didn’t mean what I just said but my God woke up on the wrong side of his bed.” – Noel Gallagher
You might be looking for reasons but there are no reasons.” – Nina LaCour
You tread lightly through life, but you leave deep footprints that are hard for other people to fill.” – Josie Silver
Your perspective of life may be a finite one, but you are neither finite nor limited! Refuse to live with guilt or regret. Refuse to see yourself as not good enough. you are totally sufficient in your health, wealth, citizenship & abundance.” – Patricia Dsouza
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
“Regret is the interest you pay on a debt you never owed.” — Unknown
“The past is a place I visit now, not a place I live.” — Unknown
“I stopped asking ‘what if’ the day I realized it has no answer.” — Unknown
“Some mistakes are just tuition for a lesson you couldn’t learn any other way.” — Unknown
“You can’t edit yesterday, but you can write a better page today.” — Unknown
“The apology I owed myself took longer than all the others.” — Unknown
“Regret knocked on my door for years. I finally stopped answering.” — Unknown
“I wish I’d called more, stayed longer, said it louder.” — Unknown
“The hardest part of regret is forgiving the person you were when you made it.” — Unknown
“Every scar is a receipt for something you survived.” — Unknown
“I used to replay my mistakes like a bad song on repeat. Now I change the station.” — Unknown
“Time doesn’t heal regret. Deciding to move forward does.” — Unknown
“The road not taken is only beautiful because you never had to walk it.” — Unknown
“I forgave everyone else first. Myself was the last one on the list.” — Unknown
“Regret is a heavy coat. Take it off before it becomes your identity.” — Unknown
“What I didn’t say weighs more than what I did.” — Unknown
“You can’t go back and get the years. You can only spend the ones left better.” — Unknown
“My biggest regret isn’t failing. It’s the years I spent afraid to try.” — Unknown
“The mirror doesn’t show your mistakes. Only you carry those around.” — Unknown
“I learned that sorry means nothing until you change the behavior.” — Unknown
“Some doors close and you spend years checking if they locked. Stop checking.” — Unknown
“Regret whispers ‘you should have.’ Courage answers ‘you still can.'” — Unknown
“The letter I never sent taught me to say things while people can still hear them.” — Unknown
“I don’t regret the chances I took. I regret the ones I talked myself out of.” — Unknown
“Yesterday’s version of me was doing the best they knew. I choose to believe that.” — Unknown
Regret Quotes About Moving On
“Carrying regret around is like paying rent on a room you don’t live in anymore.” — Unknown
“The things I regret most are the silences, not the speeches.” — Unknown
“What’s said can’t be unsaid, but the next thing you say is still yours to choose.” — Unknown
“I spent a decade angry at a version of me that was just scared and young.” — Unknown
“Regret is proof you care. Just don’t let it become proof you stopped living.” — Unknown
“The ‘almost’ moments haunt more than the failures ever could.” — Unknown
“I wish I’d been braver sooner. But sooner wasn’t ready for me either.” — Unknown
“Forgiving yourself is the quietest revolution there is.” — Unknown
“Every wrong turn taught me a street I wouldn’t have known otherwise.” — Unknown
“The past doesn’t need your permission to be over. It already is.” — Unknown
“I stopped collecting regrets the day I started collecting lessons instead.” — Unknown
“Some apologies arrive too late. Make the next one arrive on time.” — Unknown
“Regret is a teacher with terrible timing and perfect lessons.” — Unknown
“The words I swallowed are still sitting in my chest. I’m learning to let them go.” — Unknown
“You don’t get to redo it. You get to do better next time. That’s the deal.” — Unknown
“I regret the times I chose pride over the people I loved.” — Unknown
“The calendar doesn’t care about your regrets. Neither should your future.” — Unknown
“Looking back is fine. Moving back in is not.” — Unknown
“I used to think regret meant I was broken. Now I think it means I was paying attention.” — Unknown
“The bravest thing I ever did was stop punishing myself for being human.” — Unknown
“Missed chances don’t expire. They just change shape.” — Unknown
“I can’t fix the past, but I can stop letting it write my present.” — Unknown
“Regret is the echo of a choice. Make today’s choices quieter.” — Unknown
“The person I was then didn’t know what I know now. That’s not a crime.” — Unknown
“I traded years for worry. The exchange rate was terrible.” — Unknown
“Some goodbyes I rushed. Some hellos I delayed. I’m balancing the ledger now.” — Unknown
“The weight of ‘what if’ is exactly as heavy as you let it be.” — Unknown
“I stopped asking for a time machine when I realized the present needed me more.” — Unknown
“Regret fades when you finally do the thing you kept postponing.” — Unknown
“The kindest thing you can say to your past self is: you didn’t know better yet.” — Unknown
“I let one bad chapter convince me the whole book was ruined. It wasn’t.” — Unknown
“Time moves forward whether you forgive yourself or not. Choose the lighter load.” — Unknown
“The door I didn’t knock on still bothers me. So now I knock on every door.” — Unknown
“Regret is just wisdom that arrived late and stayed too long.” — Unknown
“Today I am someone my past self would be proud of. That’s the only amends that matters.” — Unknown
Sixty quotes about the heaviest word in the language — and here’s the thing they all agree on: regret is a teacher, not a landlord. It gets to visit, point at the lesson, and leave. It does not get to move in, rearrange your furniture, and charge you rent for the next decade. Read the lesson. Thank it for its time. Show it the door.
If something in this collection stung, that’s actually good data — it means you know what matters to you. Write down the one thing you’d do differently, then write down the one small thing you can do TODAY that your future self will thank you for. That’s how regret becomes wisdom instead of weight.
Today you are someone your past self would be proud of. Keep it that way with our Storm Quotes and Joker Quotes — weather the hard stuff, then laugh about it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Regret Quotes
What is regret, psychologically?
Regret is your brain’s way of saying “that choice mattered to me.” It’s not a malfunction — it’s evidence that you have values. Psychologists distinguish two flavors: regret of action (what you did) which stings hot and fades, and regret of inaction (what you didn’t do) which aches longer. The second one is why “I wish I had” hurts more than “I wish I hadn’t.”
How do I stop regretting past mistakes?
You don’t delete regret; you convert it. Name the specific lesson (“I learned I need to speak up sooner”), make one repair if possible (the apology, the changed habit), then give the memory a job: it becomes a rule, not a loop. When the same scene replays at 2 a.m., answer it with the rule, not the replay. If regret is running your whole life, that’s what therapists are for — no shame in it.
Is regret ever useful?
Yes — in small, time-boxed doses. Regret is useful the way pain is useful: it tells you where the damage is so you can treat it. Five minutes of honest “what would I do differently” is productive. Five months of the same loop is just suffering with extra steps. Set the timer, extract the lesson, move on.
What’s the difference between regret and guilt?
Guilt says “I did something bad.” Regret says “I wish I’d chosen differently.” Guilt is about morality; regret is about outcomes. You can regret a choice that wasn’t wrong — turning down the job, not saying yes to the trip — simply because you wonder about the road not taken. Both deserve the same treatment: lesson extracted, amends made where possible, then release.
Can I share these regret quotes with someone who’s struggling?
Carefully. A quote about letting go can comfort someone who’s ready to hear it and sting someone who isn’t. If you’re unsure, lead with your own words first (“I’ve been thinking of you”), and let the quote be the second thing, not the first. Every quote here is an original written for this page. A credit to AllQuotesAbout.com is appreciated but not required.
Why are all the quotes attributed to Unknown?
Because they’re genuinely new, written by our team for this collection. The internet is full of regret quotes pinned to famous names who never said them; we’d rather be honest. These are originals, labeled exactly as what they are — no borrowed authority, no fake wisdom.