Regret quotes

Regret

2.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

2.4K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside regret — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Regret quotes (page 9 of 122)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

Emma Watson Actress, Activist
Regret

"I used to look back at pictures and cringe but actually I'm quite proud that I've had fun with fashion and don't always look perfect. The only regret I have is when I look at something I wore when I was very young and it obviously looks like it belonged to someone else."

Read quote 15 likes
Dolly Parton Singer, Songwriter, Actress
Regret

"I'm the kind of person who would rather rock in my rocking chair when I'm old and regret a few things that I did than to sit there and regret that I never tried."

Read quote 15 likes
Vaclav Havel Politician, Playwright
Regret

"Self-confidence is not pride. Just the contrary: only a person or a nation that is self-confident, in the best sense of the word, is capable of listening to others, accepting them as equals, forgiving its enemies and regretting its own guilt."

Read quote 15 likes
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essayist, Philosopher, Poet
Regret

"Another sort of false prayers are our regrets. Discontent is the way of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will. Regret calamities, if you can thereby help the sufferer; if not, attend your own work, and already the evil begins to be repaired."

Read quote 15 likes
Robert Stone Novelist
Regret

"You don't want to depend on an editor. If you want to regret something for the rest of your life, you want to make sure you're responsible for it."

Read quote 15 likes
Oprah Winfrey Television host, producer, philanthropist
Regret

"What I know for sure is that it's only when you make the process your goal that the big dream can follow. That doesn't necessarily mean your process will necessarily lead you to wealth or fame. In fact, your dream may have nothing to do with tangible prosperity and everything to do with creating a life filled with joy, one with no regrets and a clear conscience. I've learned that wealth is a tool that gives you choices, but it can't compensate for a life not fully lived and it certainly can't create a sense of peace within you."

Read quote 15 likes
Marcel Proust Novelist
Regret

"The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience. They were only a thin slice among contiguous impressions which formed our life at that time; the memory of a certain image is but regret for a certain moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fleeting, alas, as the years."

Read quote 15 likes
George Orwell Writer, Journalist
Regret

"A thing which I regret, and which I will try to remedy some time, is that I have never in my life planted a walnut. Nobody does plant them nowadays-when you see a walnut it is almost invariably an old tree. If you plant a walnut you are planting it for your grandchildren, and who cares a damn for his grandchildren?"

Read quote 15 likes
Henry Miller Novelist, Essayist
Regret

"When I realize that she is gone, perhaps gone forever, a great void opens up and I feel that I am falling, falling, falling into deep, black space. And this is worse than tears, deeper than regret or pain or sorrow, it is the abyss into which Satan was plunged. There is no climbing back, no ray of light, no sound of human voice or human touch of hand."

Read quote 15 likes
Khalil Gibran Poet, Writer
Regret

"Who can depart from his pain and aloneness without regret? Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache. It is not a garment I cast off this day, bit a skin that I tear with my own hands... Yet I cannot tarry longer."

Read quote 15 likes
Eleanor Roosevelt Political Activist, Diplomat
Regret

"All human beings have failings, all human beings have needs and temptations and stresses. Men and women who live together through long years get to know one another's failings; but they also come to know what is worthy of respect and admiration in those they live with and in themselves. If at the end one can say, This man used to the limit the powers that God granted him; he was worthy of love and respect and of the sacrifices of many people, made in order that he might achieve what he deemed to be his task, then that life has been lived well and there are no regrets."

Read quote 14 likes
Taylor Swift Singer, Songwriter
Regret

"I think that being good to people - you'll never regret that. Maybe you'll get walked all over, maybe you'll get tricked, maybe you'll get fooled, but I think it's so much better to be kind to people and to trust people rather then to have your guard up and say mean things to people. You never want to be the reason that someone else feels bad."

Read quote 14 likes
Regret

"For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk."

Read quote 14 likes
Nas Rapper, Songwriter
Regret

"I have no tattoos that I regret - I have had some that I have had changed according to how my life was."

Read quote 14 likes
Neil Gaiman Author
Regret

"We do not always remember the things that do no credit to us. We justify them, cover them in bright lies or with the thick dust of forgetfulness. All of the things that Shadow had done in his life of which he was not proud, all the things he wished he had done otherwise or left undone, came at him then in a swirling storm of guilt and regret and shame, and he had nowhere to hide from them. He was as naked and as open as a corpse on a table, and dark Anubis the jackal god was his prosector and his prosecutor and his persecutor."

Read quote 14 likes
Gautama Buddha Spiritual Teacher
Regret

"Why do what you will regret? Why bring tears upon yourself? Do only what you do not regret, And fill yourself with joy."

Read quote 14 likes