Quotes About Regret

How many people delay the kindness, the expression of love, until the person is dead, beyond their reach, and then try to atone for a neglected past by flowers and tears at the funeral!

I didn't want to see you. They told me. I was afraid that I'd still love you. I hoped that you would.

Then you're dead, too, sweet little sister.' Oh, yes,' said Valentine. 'They'll believe that. I didn't know it would kill Andrew. And when he was dead, I didn't know it will kill Valentine too.

O my son Absalom,' Bean said softly, knowing for the first time the kind of anguish that could tear such words from a man's mouth. 'my son, my son Absalom. Would God I could die for thee, O Absalom, my son. My sons!

He is dead, she thought bitterly, because we have forgotten him.

I didn't want to hurt him! Ender cried. Why didn't he just leave me alone!

I stole their future from them; I can only being to repay by seeing what I can learn from their past.

to understand who a person really was, what his or her life really meant, the speaker for the dead would have to explain their self-story–what they meant to do, what they actually did, what they regretted, what they rejoiced in. That's the story that we never know, the story that we never can know–and yet, at the time of death, it's the only story truly worth telling.

I didn't want to kill them all. I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm not a killer! You didn't want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it!

What a waste of time to be posthumously famous.

Aw, Poke, you poor, kind, decent, stupid girl. You saved me and I let you down.

I knew her so well that I loved her, or maybe I loved her so well that I knew her. I didn't want to fight her anymore. I wanted to quit. I wanted to go home. So I blew up her planet.

He'd undone all he could. You can be sorry, and you can be forgiven, but you can't call back the futures that your bad decisions lost

And then the queen wept with all her heart. Not for the cruel and greedy man who had warred and killed and savaged everywhere he could. But for the boy who had somehow turned into that man, the boy whose gentle hand had comforted her childhood hurts, the boy whose frightened voice had cried out to her at the end of his life, as if he wondered why he had gotten lost inside himself, as if he realized that it was too, too late to get out again.

Might-have-beens are a bitch.

I would have the taste of poison in my mouth all the days of my life, if I went back home and pretended to be what I was before.

I'm just saying that I...I regret that everybody else has nineteen chances, and only I am limited to a single chance for my genes to continue. Because you believe your genes would confer a great blessing upon the human race. Ram thought about this for a moment, I suppose that's what every adolescent male believes with his whole heart.

I think Bonzo died. I dreamed about it last night. I remembered the way he looked after I jammed his face with my head. I think I must have pushed his nose back into his brain. The blood was coming out of his eyes. I think he was dead right then.

Those eyes had seen people weep, and had cared, and had hurt them again anyway. It's a look that no human eyes should ever have.

What could go wrong... Doing some stupid impulsive thing that caused the death of drowthers was practically a family tradition.

Here are our failures, and here is our greatness; we did not mean to hurt you, and we forgive you for our death.

Ender, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know how it feels. I'm sorry, I'm your brother. I love you.

I stole their future from them; I can only begin to repay by seeing what I can learn from their past.

I didn't want to see you. They told me. I was afraid that I'd still love you. I hoped that you would. My fear, your wish- both granted.