Regret Quotes - page 4

If I had written King Lear, I would regret it all my life afterwards. Because that work is so big, that its defects show as huge, its monstrous defects, things even minimal in between some scenes and their possible perfection. It's not the sun with spots; it's a broken greek statue. (Fernando Pessoa)
There's no regret more painful than the regret of things that never were.
Fernando Pessoa
The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd: the longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world's existence. All these half-tones of the soul's consciousness create a raw landscape within us, a sun eternally setting on what we are.
Fernando Pessoa
My deepest regret from my years in public service is the failure of the United States and the international community to act sooner to halt these crimes.
Madeleine Albright
What do you suppose makes all men look back to the time of childhood with so much regret (if their childhood has been, in any moderate degree, healthy or peaceful)? That rich charm, which the least possession had for us, was in consequence of the poorness of our treasures.
John Ruskin
I've never regretted I was born too soon. I'm proud to be a child of the twentieth century. I'm satisfied to join its ranks on our side and fight for a new world...
Nâzım Hikmet
If we enjoy the benefits of peace, it is only because we have an excellent armed force and a fine socialist economy. Let us exert all efforts so that our further development may be strong and mighty, so that our numerous enemies may think well and long before they decide to attack our fatherland, and so that if they attack, they will quickly regret it.
Kliment Voroshilov
I feel most miserable When I can't step "step up to the plate" You know? People often say Regret from doing it is better than regret for not doing it.
Ayumi Hamasaki
At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.
Barbara Bush
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
Ambrose Bierce
Regret...when it comes to you, I have oceans of it. (Khaled Hosseini)
Each of us must pay for the slightest damage he inflicts upon a universe created for indifference and stagnation, sooner or later, he will regret not having left it intact.
Emil Cioran
No one should forget: Eros alone can fulfill life; knowledge, never. Only Eros makes sense; knowledge is empty infinity; - for thoughts, there is always time; life has its time; there is no thought that comes too late; any desire can become a regret.
Emil Cioran
Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it; this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? Where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.
Emil Cioran
I was born under a lucky star, and I have nothing whatsoever to regret. I wouldn't change a thing about my life.
Richard Branson
War makes men barbarous because, to take part in it, one must harden oneself against all regret, all appreciation of delicacy and sensitive values. One must live as if those values did not exist, and when the war is over one has lost the resilience to return to those values.
Cesare Pavese
A 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 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 outgeneralled this man by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy. (From preface)
P. G. Wodehouse
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
Xenocrates
Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.
Chief Seattle
When a person sets a thing in motion, there's a feeling of unease, almost regret, until you learn the truth.
Nicholas Sparks
All things are possible, ... Except the passing of regret. (David Gemmell)
I feel a degree of regret that Marshall did not push on and say 'Abolish the GLC', because I think it would be a major saving and would have released massive resources for more productive use.
Ken Livingstone
Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably ... And never regret anything that made you smile.
Ruslana Korshunova
Don't regret your life, child, it will pass soon enough.
Jeanette Winterson
When I look at my life I realise that the mistakes I have made, the things I really regret, were not errors of judgement but failures of feeling.
Jeanette Winterson