Quotes & Sayings About Apologizing

You just said you were sorry."
...
"I was only apologizing," he said stiffly, "for startling you. The applause was to compliment you on the improvement in your life-saving techniques since the last time you- — Meg Cabot

Let me apologize for all the faces I've worn, none of them my own. — Ruth Whitman

There are, after all, between seventy-five thousand and a hundred thousand descendants of the Ball-family slaves. If I were to begin apologizing to every one of these families, it would quickly become a meaningless act. — Edward Ball

We don't have to apologize for who we are — Pauline Marois

I have a boyfriend who knows how to settle me. He puts his hand on my chest and tells me boring stories. On one of our first nights together I woke up apologizing for my snoring and he pulled out two earplugs he had worn to bed so he could hear what I was saying. — Amy Poehler

I don't see the point in apologizing to someone who remains angry enough to throw me off a cliff ... unless we are standing by a cliff. — Wes Fesler

I don't want to lose the place I have right now. So I'll fight for it."
"Is apologizing a fight to you?"
"That's right! — Minari Endou

The West Sister Dating Rules were clear on the matter of apologies. On the evolutionary scale of dating, a guy who apologized solely for the sake of ending the argument and getting back into your good graces was on the level of primeval slime - especially if he was clearly doing so merely because he was hoping for sex. The proper response was to unveil the offender's deceit by demanding he explain what exactly he was apologizing for, and then scorn him when he betrayed his ignorance. — Alex Gabriel

The anger washed away in the knowledge that I was a hypocrite. I don't know how much of it showed on my face, but Jean-Claude cocked his head to one side. "Thoughts are flying across your face, ma petite, but what thoughts?" I stared up at him. "I think I owe you an apology." His eyes widened. "Then this is a truly historic occasion. What are you apologizing for?" I — Laurell K. Hamilton

When I was a child and told my mother I didn't felt this was my planet, she thought I was schizophrenic or autistic. When later I finished a college degree and started working in different countries, she called me monster and started threatening me. Nearly 40 years later, when I was making a living from the books I wrote based on what I know, and making 6 times more money than she ever will, she apologized. I'm just not sure why or what she was apologizing for. I had already forgiven her ignorance when realizing nobody would ever believe the truth but myself. I had to go the whole way alone. Nobody was going to come with me on this very long, painful and challenging journey that humans call life but for me was much more than that, it was my mission, of changing their whole future far beyond the time when I'm gone. She was never my mother but merely the human body that gave me birth. In that sense, I am a monster, because I had no love. I had to find that too, on my own. — Robin Sacredfire

The self-righteous never apologize. — Leonard Ravenhill

Comics who grew up surviving their childhood by being able to be the first one to make the joke about their weight or their hairy arms - like me - whatever they're insecure about, whatever they're apologizing for, that becomes their strength. — Sarah Silverman

I'm going home now. I apologize for what I said. I hope you can forget it, but I'm going home right now. — Benjamin Day

I apologized pretty well, didn't I?" she said proudly as they went down the lane. "I thought since I had to do it I might as well do it thoroughly." "You did it thoroughly, all right enough," was Marilla's comment. Marilla was dismayed at finding herself inclined to laugh over the recollection. She had also an uneasy feeling that she ought to scold Anne for apologizing so well; but then, that was ridiculous! — L.M. Montgomery

Since civilizing children takes the better part of two decades
some twenty years of nonstop thinking, nurturing, teaching, coaxing, rewarding, forgiving, warning, punishing, sympathizing, apologizing, reminding, and repeating, not to mention deciding what to do when
I now understand that one wrong move is invariably followed by hundreds of opportunities to be wrong again. — Mary Blakely

Wesay nothing. We know the slight was not deliberate. We live in tight quarters, traveling together. There's no time to constantly be apologizing for existing. But when someone does wrong, when we make mistakes, we don't say sorry. We promise to make amends."
"I will."
"Mati en sheva yelu. This action will have no echo. It means we won't repeat the same mistakes, that we won't continue to do harm."
Inej and Jesper (p338) — Leigh Bardugo

I'm her fucking man, so you better start apologizing before you become her dead brother. — Aly Martinez

I apologize for my wild imagination. — Bert Cooper

I decided that instead of apologizing for having a lot to say, I wanted to create a format where people would come to hear me sing and speak. — India.Arie

Good people don't make fewer mistakes, they're just better at apologizing. — Jonathan Safran Foer

If there's anyone still present whom I've failed to insult ... I apologize. — Edward Abbey

Never contradict. Never explain. Never apologize. (Those are the secrets of a happy life!) — John Arbuthnot

For a moment I think to myself, which connection is quicker to God? Telepathically or by email? Maybe there's a quicker turnaround time if I email my problems. I should probably start by apologizing and doing something spiritual to make up for my long absence. Would an Angel with poor customer service etiquette respond to my email? Is there an 800 holy number to dial? If so, which manual would the Angel be reading from? The Bible or the Qur'an? Does it matter? Would the Angel have Sister Mary sitting next to her, watching and coaching her on how to talk to people with issues? And how do you handle four billion calls a day? I suppose I would have to wait my turn in line, just like everyone else. — Sadiqua Hamdan

Sorry 'bout that," Pretty Boy says with a crooked grin. I don't know whether he's apologizing for our initial collision or for the humiliating near-miss of an inadvertent motorboat situation. — Lauren Layne

You don't have to apologize for being feminine in a male space. — Charissa Thompson

A word about apologizing: It's hard to do it without digging yourself in deeper. It's also scary and that's why we avoid the pain. We want so badly to plead our case and tell our story. The bad news is that everybody has a story. Everyone has a version of how things went down and how they participated. — Amy Poehler

In America, we celebrate success. We don't apologize for success. — Mitt Romney

I've done some dastardly things but what can I do except make amends and apologize? — Stan Getz

Halfhearted or insincere apologies are often worse than not apologizing at all because recipients find them insulting. If you've done something wrong in your dealings with another person, it's as if there's an infection in your relationship. A good apology is like an antibiotic; a bad apology is like rubbing salt I the wound. — Randy Pausch

If you catch yourself apologizing and then using the word but, stop dead in your tracks and back up. That little conjunction should be like a blinking red light, indicating that you are not taking ownership. — Michael Hyatt

The first reaction is surely the most natural one, but not always the most correct one; thereupon, the invention of apologies. — Criss Jami

The Brothers Grimm came along and I was so desperate for work ... Actually I've got to say that I like the movie, I won't apologize for it. — Terry Gilliam

Apologizing is great, but 'sorry' isn't a magic word. — G. Norman Lippert

A truly humble apology works to part storm clouds, calm rough seas, and bring on the soft lights of dawn; it has the power to change a person's world. — Richelle E. Goodrich

What about a compromise? I'll kill them first, and if it turns out they were friendly, I'll apologize. — Rick Riordan

When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed. — Charles Spurgeon

A lot of first-time filmmakers are almost apologizing for their movie by saying, 'Well, we only had 18 days to shoot, you know.' — Mark Waters

The promise of Plath's work was that a woman could de-fang the charges of hysteria by owning them. Unlike Solanas, who seemingly never saw herself as flawed or sick, or Wollstonecraft and Bronte, who swept their flaws under the carpet so as not to compromise themselves, or even Jacobs, who was honest, but played a delicate game of apologizing for "sins" that were not her fault so as to reach her audience, Plath took her own flaws as her subject, and thereby made them the source of her authority. By detailing her own overabundant inner life, no matter how huge and frightening it was -- her sexuality, her suicidality, her broken relationships, her anger at the world or at men -- she could, in some crucial way, own that part of her story, simply because she chose to tell it. And, if she could do this, other women could do it, too. — Sady Doyle

I guess that isn't the right word, she said. She was used to apologizing for her use of language. She had been encouraged to do a lot of that in school. Most white people in Midland City were insecure when they spoke, so they kept their sentences short and their words simple, in order to keep embarrassing mistakes to a minimum. Dwayne certainly did that. Patty certainly did that.
This was because their English teachers would wince and cover their ears and give them flunking grades and so on whenever they failed to speak like English aristocrats before the First World War. Also: they were told that they were unworthy to speak or write their language if they couldn't love or understand incomprehensible novels and poems and plays about people long ago and far away, such as Ivanhoe. — Kurt Vonnegut

I've stopped apologizing to myself for having this great period of success and financial acceptance. — Robert Plant

To apologize for your personal absolutes, for what Sandy Pinter calls your "Core Attachments," means apologizing for your very existence. — Walter Kirn

Comedy is truth. We should not apologize for it. — Joan Rivers

I was always apologizing for yesterday's behavior and I got tired of it. I feel it's good being straight. As I did when I first got high. It's a high to be straight because I was getting loaded every day. — Ozzy Osbourne

A sincere and warmly-expressed apology can produce the same effects as morphine on a suffering soul. — Richelle E. Goodrich

You're apologizing? Seriously, what happened to you? Have you been taken over by a pod person? — Dianne Duvall

Never apologize for being yourself. — Paulo Coelho

True life begins when you resolve not to quit, downplay failure, stop apologizing of who you're, and refrain from appeasing others. Begin living! — Assegid Habtewold

He had a notebook. He took notes in it. It was always useful. And them Sybil, gods bless her, had brought him this fifteen-function imp which did so many other things, although as far as he could see at least ten of its functions consisted of apologizing for its inefficiency in the other five. — Terry Pratchett

Why are you apologizing to me? I'm the one who was horribly careless. I assumed no one would be so far from the trails, but I should have checked first. Such a stupid mistake! You have nothing to apologize for."
"But I growled at you!" I was still horrified that I was physically capable of such blasphemy. — Stephenie Meyer

Id done more apologizing in the past week than a politician with a crack pipe and a sex addiction. — Kristin Walker

I have come to understand that I have offended you with my honest about your power,' he said. 'I am not accustomed-' He paused and rubbed his chin. 'I mean apart from my father, there has been no one whose opinion I was required to consider. And I've never had to'-his finger traced the edge of the pearl-'pursue a woman.'
Was the emperor apologizing to me?
He took a deep breath. 'I cannot take back those words-we both know they were the truth-but I regret that I caused you hurt.' He reached across and took my hand. 'And they did not take into account the importance I place upon your role as Niaso. Eona, you are the moon balance to my sun. — Alison Goodman

I talk about beepers going off in the middle of a concert and people being late and not apologizing, and people not RSVP-ing, and adult children going back to live with their parents, which we didn't have in the '60s and '70s. — Letitia Baldrige

I hated Chris, my brother. I would pull his hair and kick him, until one day my father gave him permission to fight back. I'll be apologizing to him for the rest of my life. — Stevie Nicks

It was to apologize, and apologizing means he remembers what happened, and that means being trapped in a nightmare that's already come true. — Beth Revis

Well, I was done hiding, hating, or apologizing for the parts of me I hadn't chosen and couldn't change. If some people had a problem with my differences, that was just too fucking bad for them. — Jeaniene Frost

Never apologize on stage. Most people never notice when you make a mistake or if you are having a bad show. — Tristan Prettyman

And I remembered now, too, my inadvertent youthful condescension, when the woman had said, apologizing for some information she couldn't recall, "I still remember the coat I wore when I was five, but I have no idea what I ate for breakfast today." I'd laughed and smiled in warm sympathy. How sweet, I had thought, she remembers her coat. She must have loved it not to have forgotten. But the coat wouldn't ask any effort of preservation. Feeling ninety, and no longer five, there would be the real effort. Telling that five-year old girl, in her beautiful coat, You're all finished. Submerged. Obsolete.
We are ghosts of ourselves, and of others, and all of these ghosts appear perfectly real. — Susan Choi

I'm not apologizing for what I did. I'm apologizing for what I didn't do. — Jennifer Tilly

I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologize for it. — Peter Arnett

My impulse is always toward work, pushing, guilt, rushing. But what restores me, what allows me to interact well with my family, what allows me to get good writing done, is almost always the opposite. And I'm finding that when I practice things like rest, grace, peace, prayer, self-care and slowness, the work gets done just the same. Well, just the same except less crying and less apologizing to my family. I'll take it. — Shauna Niequist

Apologizing does not always mean you're wrong and the other person is right. It just means you value your relationship more than your ego. — Mark Matthews

You don't want to have to come into work on Monday already apologizing. I try to save my apologies for what I've done later in the week. — Ike Barinholtz

And certainly there are many speakers whom I'd like to see do more trembling, more unknowing, more apologizing. — Maggie Nelson

My mouth dries up. I know I am not apologizing for the picture. I am sorry for being there in the first place. — Lynda Mullaly Hunt

I think a lot of American comedies tend to apologize for their bad behavior in the last 10 minutes of the movie. — Todd Phillips

I made a horrendous mistake not apologizing to my wife — Ray Rice

I've heard attacks were made on coalition forces because of those. I apologize to the families of those who lost loved ones or were injured because of the photos. — Lynndie England

Good point." Sophia said at last. "I'm not very good at saying sorry, but I apologize. — Chris Kurtz

Out loud I said I had two children. Silently I said three. I always felt like apologizing to her for that. — Alice Sebold

If I need to apologize for misrepresenting God's love I'd rather apologize for overstating His love than for understating it. — Steve McVey

I've always been amazed by the ease with which a stranger's life can be reconstructed by simply snooping through their belongings. Art and imagination combine to tell a tale that's more complete than even a fat printed biography could ever hope to equal. And Mr. Denning was no exception: His secrets were laid so bare that I felt I ought to be apologizing. — Alan Bradley

You can't pursue something and be committed to it if you're apologizing for it at every party. — Lisa Kudrow

I've had my bubblegum years and I did them well. Now it's time to come back as the woman, artist, and musician that I am without apologizing. — Irene Cara

During the Democratic presidential debate Howard Dean started off by apologizing to the crowd for having a cold. Then John Kerry apologized for once having a cold while serving his country in Vietnam. — Conan O'Brien

Sometimes I apologize. It started that way and we never did change it. — Douglas Engelbart

I'm sorry, but you're kinda losing me here. I'm happy to keep apologizing, but I do need to know what I'm apologizing for. — Mira Grant

The one big surprise is that as it turns out, God is the sun. It makes sense, if you think about it. Why we didn't see it sooner I cannot say. Every day the sun was right there burning, our and other planets hovering around it, always apologizing and we didn't think it was God. Why would there be a God and also a sun? Of course God is the sun.
Everyone in the life before was cranky, I think, because they just wanted to know. — Dave Eggers

I'm a real woman who digests her meals and breaks out and has sweet little pockets of cellulite on her upper thighs that she's not apologizing for. Because guess what? We all have that shit. We're all human beings. — Amy Schumer

Talk about your failures without apologizing. — Brene Brown

The Top 10 Most Effective Things That You Can Say: 1. Thank you very much. 2, You are so right. 3. How can I help you right now? 4. I ask that you ... 5. I apologize for for what has happened. 6. Why is that? 7. Are you willing to ... ? 8. I love you. 9. Will you help me? 10. Yes. — Thomas Leonard

Like the rest of the devout, he was incapable of understanding that the Holy One's face is never turned away but constantly looks down on all creatures with a beneficence that they are too busy apologizing for their unworthiness and performing their good works and assuring Heaven of their unfailing devotion to notice. — Frederick Buechner

Love who you are, and you're good enough, and you don't need to feel like you need to apologize for who you are, and you don't need to feel like you need to try to be someone you're not. — Carmen Rasmusen

As Peter Berger has noted, the strategy of apologizing for Christian faith by trying to demonstrate its social utility is always eventually self-liquidating. Sooner of later people realize that a great many of the supposedly practical and secular benefits of the Christian religion can be had more easily without religion ... The logic of practical atheism may well be more deeply ingrained in the evangelical tradition than conservatives perhaps have realized. — Craig M. Gay

It is easier to apologize than to get permission. — Grace Hopper

Some days I am more wolf than woman, and I am still learning how to stop apologizing for my wild. — Nikita Gill

I have nothing definite to apologize for; I'm just sorry about everything in general. — Ashleigh Brilliant

It's easier to apologize afterwards than getting something allowed in the first place. — Clifford Stoll

To the degree I was too brash, Too self-confident or too pushy, I apologize. — Newt Gingrich

Love is a house with many rooms, this room to feed the love, this one to entertain it, this one to clean it, this one to dress it, this one to allow it to rest, and each of these rooms can also just as well be the room for laughing or the room for listening or the room for apologizing or the room for intimate togetherness, and, of course, there are the rooms for the new members of the household. — Yann Martel

Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores. — F Scott Fitzgerald

I apologize because of the terrible mess the planet is in. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any 'Good Old Days,' there have just been days. And as I say to my grandchildren, 'Don't look at me. I just got here myself.' — Kurt Vonnegut

For as long as I could remember, I had been apologizing for existing, for trying to be who I was, to live the life I was meant to lead. — Meredith Russo

I apologize if there's a Parkinson's painter in the audience. I assume you do your best work in the morning. Probably gets abstract by noon. — Daniel Tosh

To know that you do not know and to be willing to admit that you do not know without sheepishly apologizing is real strength and sets the stage for learning and progress in any endeavor. — Epictetus

Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a Southern man apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance. Our cause was so just, so sacred, that had I known all that has come to pass, had I known what was to be inflicted upon me, all that my country was to suffer, all that our posterity was to endure, I would do it all over again. — Jefferson Davis

I think we each have a certain number of unnecessary apologies, which we willingly dish out before we realize it's time to stand and fight. I may still have two or three left. — Joyce Rachelle

You long for life and try to settle the problems of life by a logical tangle. And how tiresome, how insolent your outbursts are, and at the same time, how scared you are! You talk nonsense and are pleased with it; you say imprudent things and are constantly afraid of them and apologizing for them. You declare that you are afraid of nothing and at the same time try to ingratiate yourself with us. You declare that you are gnashing your teeth and at the same time you try to be witty so as to amuse us. You know that your witticisms are not witty, but you are evidently well satisfied with their literary value. You may perhaps really have suffered, but you have no respect whatsoever for your own suffering. You may be truthful in what you have said but you have no modesty; out of the pettiest vanity you bring your truth to public exposure, to the market place, to ignominity. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Oh, how the clouds stumbled in and assembled stupidly in the sky.
Great obese clouds.
Dark and plump.
Bumping into each other. Apologizing. Moving on and finding room. — Markus Zusak

I argue with myself, get mad at myself, throw myself around the room and then apologize to myself. — Jim Cummings

I have to apologize to you that I am still among the living. There will be a remedy for this, however. — Albert Einstein