Regret Quotes

We've compiled this list of regret quotes because sometimes someone says or writes something that is so eloquent that there is just no better way of saying it. By looking at how others view a given topic, we learn to appreciate different points of view and gain insight on the lives and thoughts of others. While some of these quotations are humorous and others profound, they all show us how much, we as humans, have in common.

Below is our listing of regret quotes (gathered from public sources) that we found to be particularly interesting on the topic of regret.

"I'd rather regret the things I have done than the things that I haven't ." Lucille Ball


"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." John Barrymore



"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Alexander Graham Bell


"I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say." Ingrid Bergman


"Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did." H. Jackson Brown, Jr.


"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." Sydney J. Harris


"Forget regret, or life is yours to miss." Jonathan Larson


"Make it a rule in life never to regret and never look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it is good only for wallowing in."
Katherine Mansfield


"Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently."
Charles Dudley Warner


"I have no apologies, no regrets. I gave my very best efforts.... I've been hung in effigy. I've been spat upon. You just have to let those things bounce off ."
William Westmoreland

 

Below are some recent additions to our regret-quotes list.  If you know of any regret quotes that you feel should be added to our list, please contact us we'd love to hear about them.

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!"
John Greenleaf Whittier

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." Sydney J. Harris


"I have many regrets, and I'm sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret...if you have any sense....And if you don't regret them, maybe you're stupid." Katherine Hepburn


"Something you need most might be something you turn away from, something you turn away from might be something you regret, and something you regret, in the end, might cost you the one chance you ever had."
Brian Judge


"The time has come for me to get my kite flying, stretch out in the sun, kick off my shoes, and speak my piece. 'The days of struggle are over,' I should be able to say. 'I can look back now and tell myself I don't have a single regret.' But I do. Many years ago a very wise man named Bernard Baruch took me aside and put his arm around my shoulder. 'Harpo, my boy,' he said, 'I'm going to give you three pieces of advice, three things you should always remember.' My heart jumped and I glowed with expectation. I was going to hear the magic password to a rich, full life from the master himself. 'Yes, sir' I said. And he told me the three things. I regret that I've forgotten what they were."
Harpo Marx

More regret quotes below...

"Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so." David Grayson


"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country." Nathan Hale


"Do not regret growing older. It's a privilege denied to many." Unknown


"Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience." Victoria Holt


"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret." Ambrose Bierce


"Youth is a blunder. Manhood a struggle. Old Age a regret." Benjamin Disraeli


"Make the most of your regrets...To regret deeply is to live afresh." Henry David Thoreau


"We do not regret the loss of our friends by reasons of their merit, but because of our needs and for the good opinion that we believed them to have held of us ."
La Rochefoucauld


"Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true." Robert Brault


"I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn't dare to make an enemy should get out of the business." Bette Davis


"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."
J. Danforth Quayle


"Accept life, and you must accept regret."
Henri F. Amiel

These last regret quotes were sent in to us by our viewers. Thank you.

"Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future." Fulton Oursler

"If you marry you will regret it. If you do not marry you will regret it. If you marry or do not marry, you will regret it." Unknown

"You may regret your silence once, but you will regret your words often ." Unknown

"My one regret in life is that I am not someone else."
Woody Allen

We hope you've enjoyed these regret quotes and can appreciate them for what they are. Think about ways of using them as part of an apology to express a specific sentiment.

See our other collections of quotes in our Ways to Apologize section.

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Regret Quotes to Regret and Remorse