logo

Quotes About Regret

Emma dropped the letter. The first thing she felt was a sinking in her stomach and a trembling in her knees; then, a sense of blind guilt, of unreality, of cold, of fear; then, a desire for this day to be past. Then immediately she realized that such a wish was pointless, for her father's death was the only thing that had happened in the world, and it would go on happening, endlessly, forever after.
~ Jorge Luís Borges
Such a pity that he [GK Chesterton] became a Catholic.
~ Jorge Luís Borges
Misery requires paradises lost
~ Jorge Luís Borges
I felt what we always feel when someone dies–the sad awareness, now futile, of how little it would have cost us to have been more loving. One forgets that one is a dead man conversing with dead men.
~ Jorge Luís Borges
Uneltele mele de lucru sunt umilin?a ?i angoasa; Ce n-a? da s? m? fi n?scut mort!
~ Jorge Luís Borges
There is a line by Verlaine that I will not remember again. There is a street nearby that is off limits to my feet. There is a mirror that has seen me for the last time. There is a door I have closed until the end of the world. Among the books in my library (I'm looking at them now) are some I will never open. This summer I will be fifty years old. Death is using me up, relentlessly.
~ Jorge Luís Borges
Was it you that killed me, or did I kill you? Abel answered. I don't remember anymore; here we are, together, like before. Now I know that you have truly forgiven me, Cain said, because forgetting is forgiving. I, too, will try to forget.
~ Jorge Luis Borges Legend
Now to die of grief would mean, I'm afraid, to die belatedly, while latecomers are unwelcome, particularly in the future. ...
~ Joseph Brodsky
It's a maddening thing in itself to look at an old poem of yours." —
~ Joseph Brodsky
When I was one-and-twentyI heard him say again,"The heart out of the bosomWas never given in vain;'Tis paid with sighs aplentyAnd sold for endless rue."And I am two-and-twenty,And Oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
~ A. E. Housman
Orpheus struck dumb with hindsight.
~ A. E. Stallings
Can you forget your love for me, Whom now you detest? But that's all one, those times are gone. No doubt 'tis for the best...
~ A. Norman Jeffares
Por entonces, en octubre de 1902, el padre de Max, que obstinadamente desaprobaba el uso de abrigos, cogió una pulmonía. Murió tres días, después, a los cuarenta y cuatro años.
~ A. Scott Berg
Bronze gods, Mikani. You've seen death before. Bloody hells, we've buried friends together, you and I." "She's different, Hu." "Then tell her that before it's too late, you sodding imbecile.
~ A.A. Aguirre
Then Piglet saw what a Foolish Piglet he had been, and he was so ashamed of himself that he ran straight off home and went to bed with a headache.
~ A.A. Milne
You smile upon your friend to-day, To-day his ills are over; You hearken to the lover's say, And happy is the lover. 'Tis late to hearken, late to smile, But better late than never: I shall have lived a little while Before I die for ever.
~ A.E. Housman
I sought them far and found them, The sure, the straight, the brave, The hearts I lost my own to, The souls I could not save They braced their belts about them, They crossed in ships the sea, They sought and found six feet of ground, And there they died for me.
~ A.E. Housman
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder? He would not stay for me to stand and gaze. I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder, And went with half my life about my ways.
~ A.E. Housman
Shake hands, we shall never be friends; give over: I only vex you the more I try. All's wrong that ever I've done and said, And nought to help it in this dull head: Shake hands, goodnight, goodbye. But if you come to a road where danger Or guilt or anguish or shame's to share, Be good to the lad that loves you true And the soul that was born to die for you, And whistle and I'll be there.
~ A.E. Housman
It nods and curtseys and recovers When the wind blows above, The nettle on the graves of lovers That hanged themselves for love. The nettle nods, the wind blows over, The man, he does not move, The lover of the grave, the lover That hanged himself for love.
~ A.E. Housman
To-day I shall be strong, No more shall yield to wrong, Shall squander life no more; Days lost, I know not how, I shall retrieve them now; Now I shall keep the vow I never kept before.
~ A.E. Housman
Tis late to hearken, late to smile, But better late than never; I shall have lived a little while Before I die for ever.
~ A.E. Housman
Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.
~ A.E. Housman
When I Was One-And-Twenty When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, "Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free." But I was one-and-twenty, No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, "The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue." And I am two-and-twenty, And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
~ A.E. Housman