Quotes About Regret

By doing nothing, Sloan's so-called friends had sealed her fate as surely as Fritz had with his gun. In hindsight, did any of them recognize the price she had paid for their passivity? Their failure to act was all the more damning for the ease with which they rationalized their behavior afterward.

A veces los hombres somos necios y tomamos lo que no queremos porque pensamos que no podemos tener lo que deseamos.

You think you want to know something, and then once you do, all you can think about is erasing it from your mind.

At forty-two, I had never done anything that took my own breath away, and I suppose now that was part of the problem--my chronic inability to astonish myself. I promise you, no one judges me more harshly than I do myself; I caused a brilliant wreckage. Some say I fell from grace; they're being kind. I didn't fall. I dove.

I'd chosen the regret I could live with best, that's all.

This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away.

I'd chosen the regret I could live with best, that's all. I'd chosen the life I belonged to.

When he spoke, the roughness was gone from his voice. I could tell you I did it. That's what you wanna hear. I could tell you she did it to herself, but both ways I'd be lying. It was you who did it, Lily. You didn't mean it, but it was you.

My aspiration to become a jurist had been laid to rest in the Graveyard of Failed Hopes, an all-female establishment. The sorrow of it had faded, but regret remained, and I'd taken to wondering if the Fates might be kinder to a different girl.

Water beaded across her shoulders, shining like drops of milk, and her breasts swayed in the currents. It was the kind of vision you never really get over. I couldn't help it, I wanted to go and lick the milk beads from her shoulders. I opened my mouth. I wanted something. Something, I didn't know what. Mother, forgive.

It'd been Lucy who ran tattling to Miss Mary about my lettering under the tree, and Miss Mary had run tattling to missus. I'd judged Lucy to be stupid, but she was only weak-willed and wanting to get in good with Miss Mary. I never did forgive her, and I don't know if Miss Sarah forgave her sister, cause what came from all that snitching turned the tide on Miss Sarah's life. Her studying was over and done.

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. Such a notion made it virtually impossible to enjoy life.

I couldn't imagine what it cost him to say these words. I do, I said. And you must forgive me.

I longed for it in that excruciating way one has of romanticizing the life she didn't choose. But sitting here now, I knew if I'd accepted Israel's proposal, I would've regretted that, too. I'd chosen the regret I could live with best, that's all. I'd chosen the life I belonged to.

Regrets don't help anything, you know that.

That's a millstone for you," I told her, "I'm sorry," and the minute it left my mouth, I knew it was coming from the true mind that was me, not the mind for the master to see. I was sorry for her. Sarah had jimmied herself into my heart, but at the same time, I hated the eggshell color of her face, the helpless way she looked at me all the time. She was kind to me and she was part of everything that stole my life.

It almost bereaves me to think of unrealized potentials dying inside, the small miscarriages of self. I

Forgiveness was so much harder than being remorseful. I couldn't imagine the terrible surrender it would take

I'd chosen the regret I could live with best, that's all. I'd chosen the life I belonged to. (Sarah Grimke's character)

One night sitting beside the Greek shore, Shirley thinks to herself, I've allowed myself to lead this little life when inside me there is so much more...That's where Shirley Valentine disappeared to. She got lost in all this unused life.

But she and Cyrus had had a love for the ages. They had connected so beautifully, with both understanding and passion. But now what did she have to show for the marriage? A husband who thought she was shrewish. The gonorrhea infection

All my life, I have run after false gold. You were the only treasure I ever had—and then I lost you.

There it is again, the mantra "if only." I am always made aware of the alternative universe where things turned out differently, in which lives were saved. I am used to the mantra. For immigrants, regret can become a way of life. Shouts

The past was all right there before me: generations of Koreans separated by division; decades of longing, loss, hurt, regret, guilt.