Not Regretting Quotes & Sayings

Live in a way that would not leave us regretting after so many years on earth. — Sunday Adelaja

Nobody has forever; you of all should know that. We have moments, mere moments in time, during which we're given brief windows to steal a smidgen of happiness for ourselves. Don't you see? This is our moment. Ask yourself, is this what Daltrey would have wanted for you? Eh? Confronting some rogue to get justice for people who are dead and no longer care? Wherever your people are, and wherever Daltrey is, they are somewhere better and the only piece of heaven on earth we have is us, and you're neglecting our chance here, to be happy. All you keep thinking about is righting the wrong, but the only wrong is inside your mind. The only wrong is you." I gasped, breathless, regretting some of my words but not all. — Sarah Michelle Lynch

Many of our efforts to intentionally craft and subsequently force our limited vision on life has more often than not resulted in some degree of cataclysm or schism or division or any number of other things that aren't all that savory. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

You create your luck by being healthy and not regretting the past or being anxious about the future. — James Altucher

I'm taking a philosophy class and regretting it with everything in me. I'm taking one college class per semester. Philosophy is studying what you already know and dismantling it. I thought it would be right up my alley. I can't tell you how much it's not me. — Helen Hunt

Every historian loves the past or should do. If not, he has mistaken his vocation; but it is a short step from loving the past to regretting that it has ever changed. Conservatism is our greatest trade-risk; and we run psychoanalysts close in the belief that the only "normal" people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anybody else. — A.J.P. Taylor

The idea of regretting not doing this seemed insane to me. Sitting in the corner at a bar at age 60, saying: 'I could've been Bond. Buy me a drink.' That's the saddest place I could be. At least now at 60 I can say: 'I was Bond. Now buy me a drink.' — Daniel Craig

Habit is the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all. — William James

I flipped open to read the marked passage in Daily Strength: "It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are, is God's providential arrangement - God's doing, though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made out of them." - F. W. Robertson — Will Schwalbe

[When I die], I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted and advantages squandered. — Anthony Bourdain

We can regret something that we did , we can regret something that we didn't do; but the only thing that we can not afford to regret is regretting being ourselves — Hisham Fawzi

What did you learn?"
"Letting go of my past, because it's all soot, nothing is left
of it, if I wandered there for long I would be running in circles
in the dark, no hope, no life. And if I chose to live in those
places rebuilt from ashes, I can never get rid of the darkness
which would prevail underneath."
"The present is my ray of hope. I could have stayed there,
complaining about the gloominess of the light, and regretting
not having turned a corner to explore a new horizon at the same
time I needed to respect that light because it was my savior from
the dark. I learnt it finally and that's why I reached here today
and found you — Dixy Gandhi

Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone. — Jerome K. Jerome

I thought I could let you go
I thought that you could leave and know
The time we took would fade
But I'm colder than the bed where we lay
You let go if you like, I'll hold on
Say no all you want, I'm not done
Baby, I promise you
Did you think I'd let you go?
That's never happening and now you know
Take your time, I'll wait
Regretting every last thing I said — Kylie Scott

Heden chose to shut up. He could not remember ever regretting silence. — Matthew Colville

My position was a common one; I wanted to do the right thing but could not help regretting the damnable expense. — Robertson Davies

Because I love you more than any goddamn thing on this fucking planet, I'm gonna let you have one more day. You just lost your daddy, and I'll never forgive my- self for not being here with you. I'll live my life regretting it. But I'll be back. You're mine, Eva Brooks. Always. You told me that yourself and, sweetheart, I'm holding you to it. — Abbi Glines

Suddenly she realized that what she was regretting was not the lost past but the lost future, not what had not been but what would never be. — F Scott Fitzgerald

Not regretting it later is the reason I've done at least three-quarters of the best things in my life. — Cheryl Strayed

Denny gave me a strange look when I showed up in the band room, but I have always believed playing drums is no excuse not to look cute. Besides, if McDaniel shows up, I want to look my best. Oh, crap, I should be paying attention.
"Did you hear anything I said?"
I answer honestly, "No."
Denny runs a hand through his spiked hair and asks, "Do you really want to learn how to march?"
"I have to learn to march if I want to be a part of the section, right?"
"Right."
"Then, it doesn't really matter if I want to do anything. It's something I have to do."
Denny looks confused and partially like he's completely regretting the decision to add me to his section, but proceeds to teach me drill for the better part of two hours. While we run through the steps, I look longingly over at my quints, which I have secretly decided to name Quincy. — Courtney Brandt

people are here to do reckless things, stupid things they might later regret, though the point of it all is in not regretting. For the idea of the party is youth. — Lucy Foley

Hazel wanted to ask him what he was thinking, what he was feeling, if he was regretting the witch or was just too tired to think, if he was embarrassed that the princess had rescued the knight or if he didn't mind so much now that it had happened, if he remembered everything that had passed, if he was mad at himself for going with the witch, if his warm blood was winning the battle against the water in his veins; she wanted to reach out and grab the things in his mind and heart and hold them so they could examine them together, but they were not hers to take. — Anne Ursu

I'm here to right wrongs and I'm gonna do it, Angel. You told me I'd had my last chance but I don't accept that and I won't. If you tell me now that my explanation is not enough and you want me gone, I'm not goin'. I'm not giving up. I got one part of my life's dream still open to me, very sign she gives me is screaming that she's standing in my arms right now and I'm not gonna be ninety years old, looking back on my life and regretting that I gave up that dream. — Kristen Ashley

The hardest time to say something that turns another back to the Lord is during an argument. We get heated and easily tempted to say something we don't mean. Perhaps in our anger for the moment we mean what we say. But when we start thinking more rationally, we realize that's not our heart at all. So we end up regretting our words. In this example we see that the words start with the heart. We need to learn to back down and cool off a minute. If we aren't meditating on the Lord, in our anger we will let something slip. It's good to remember to cool off and spend some time with God. Think about the situation, then go back and speak when your heart is sober. — Adam Houge

When my brother, ... , was a young boy learning the Chinese classics, I was in the habit of listening with him and I became unusually proficient at understanding those passages that he found too difficult to grasp and memorize. Father a most learned man, was always regretting the fact: 'Just my luck!' he would say. 'What a pity she was not born a man!' But then I gradually realized that people were saying 'It's bad enough when a man flaunts his Chinese learning; she will come to no good,' and since I have avoided writing the simplest character. — Murasaki Shikibu

I prefer buying things and figuring out where to put them later than regretting not buying them. — Christian Louboutin

In London, she'd overheard more than one matron decrying what they considered Esme Byron's inappropriate eccentricities, aghast that she was allowed so much personal freedom and the ability to voice opinions they considered unsuitable for an unmarried young woman barely out of the schoolroom. But her family always stood by her, proud of her artistic talent and uniformly deaf to the complaints of any critics who might say she needed a firmer hand.
'What must Ned and Mama be thinking now?' Were they regretting that they had not listened to those critics? Wishing they'd kept a tighter rein on her activities rather than letting her venture out as she chose?
But she would have gone mad being constrained and confined the way she knew most girls her age were. She could never have been borne the suffocating restrictions, the smothering tedium of being expected to go everywhere with a chaperone in tow, or worse, being cooped up inside doing embroidery or playing the pianoforte. — Tracy Anne Warren

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. — Henry David Thoreau

I know that I shall die struggling for breath, and I know that I shall be horribly afraid. I know that I shall not be able to keep myself from regretting bitterly the life that has brought me to such a pass; but I disown that regret. I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing. — W. Somerset Maugham

Father, One day, a woman walked into my life. I hurt her deeply with the harshest words possible. I pushed her away as much as I could. But, she still came back to me. She is so much like me; I look at myself often when I look at her. She has the physical wounds that I have. The tears that fill my brain are flowing through her heart as well. I gave her those wounds. I made her cry. I should not have met her. I should not have allowed her to come into the life of a guy like me. Father, I'm regretting it. This is the first time ... that I have ever regretted anything in my life. — Ma-Roo

I'm not sure I'll ever know the meaning of life or what comes for us after death, but I know it's more than the hysteria people make it out to be. It's about freeing your soul when no one else can; turning thirty and still feeling like you're seventeen. It's about taking chances on a whim, embracing the rain during the storm, and smiling so damn much that you start to cry. It's never regretting, never forgetting, and always being.
It's kissing underwater and touching in the dark. Loving even when you think it's emotionally impossible and surviving someway and somehow.
It's about living life with a full heart and an overflowing glass.
I live life on the edge. I dream, I care, and I belong.
I know there's a here and now.
I know that I want it. — Nadege Richards

Yeah, well, I'm regretting every letting you catch me that night," she huffed, taking no notice of his machinations as she blew back her hair in that charming habit she had. It was an invitation he could not resist. His hands crept into her gorgeous hair, the luxuriant strands settling between his fingers.
"Hey, sweetheart, it was either me or the concrete. One of us had to do it."
"At this point I'm thinking the concrete would've been less painful ... and less complicated. — Jacquelyn Frank

It is true that I had wanted to die , but that is peculiarly different from regretting having been born. Overwhelmingly, I was enormously glad to have been born, grateful for life, and I couldn't imagine not wanting to pass on life to someone else. — Kay Redfield Jamison

I never regret anything. I always said that when I'm old, I want to be sitting there regretting the things that I did and not the things that I didn't do; and now I'm old, and I don't regret anything! I had fun. I had fun, and I'm still having it. — Michael Caine

And as terrified as she might have been as she lay in that room, perhaps regretting herself to the core, she had already resolved not to show any fear, no matter what was in store for her. So when — Chang-rae Lee

Some things you did were worth regretting; others not. — Richard Yates

Mike Mason says, "A decision to rejoice in the present changes not only the present, it also changes my view of the past and ignites my future with hope."[26] I've stopped demanding that a moment last longer than it can. I don't require a moment to be anything other than what it is: a brief span of time that has been given by a gracious Father. I will wring every bit of pleasure out of this moment because I don't know when the next one will come. We're rarely satisfied with today; we spend too much time regretting the unrepeatable past and wishing we could get a do-over, or we waste our energy on worry and anxiety about the unknowable future. Either way, TODAY is ignored or minimized. — Kay Warren

The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same time our rivals, nay, frequently our models, in those very points of superiority from which we seek comfort when regretting the unnatural character of our manners. We see that remarkable people uniting at once fullness of form and fullness of substance, both philosophising and creating, both tender and energetic, uniting a youthful fancy to the virility of reason in a glorious humanity. — Friedrich Schiller

Heredity. It's like going to a fortune-teller and regretting it. As human beings, we tend not to like things we can't avoid. Death, for instance. — Jo Nesbo

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. — Vaclav Havel

Instead of regretting what we cannot do, it is better to do anything we can do. Even if what we do does not bring us to our goal, it brings us much closer to it. — CLAMP

Good Lord, I'm regretting this now," I muttered. "I have never - ever - smelled BO this bad in my life. And I once had s'mores wit a Sasquatch."
"Hang out with him for awhile," Mort gasped. "Eventually it's not so bad."
"Wow. Really?"
"No. Not really. — Jim Butcher

They knew that flowers die and leaves fall, but they could not carry that knowledge into their own lives; the acceptance was beyond them. Sighing for the blossom, they missed the fruit, growing and ripening. Regretting the fruit, they did not see the delicate tracery of bare boughs against a winter sky. — Lettice Cooper

It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are is God's providential arrangement - God's doing, though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made our of them. — Will Schwalbe

You have a way of turning the established order on its head." Instantly regretting that, he forced his face to relax; Lynx must not see anger in his eyes. — Gwynn White

No, war will not be stopped. But it is a comfort, in the midst of a war, to read an antiwar book this good, and be reminded that just because something keeps happening, doesn't mean we get to stop regretting it. Massacres are bad, the death of innocents is bad, hate is bad, and there's something cleansing about hearing it said so purely. — George Saunders

It isn't the great big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones
I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant. — Jean Webster

Not truly living in the present moment and later regretting is like closing your eyes when a peacock is dancing, only to want to see it dance once it is gone.-RVM — R.v.m.

I started with the firm conviction that when I came to the end, I wanted to be regretting the things that I had done, not the things I hadn't. — Michael Caine

Grandmother was always regretting the old days-she was younger in old days,and the sun was warmer in old days,and cream did not turn so sour in old days-it was always the old days! — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If things are tough, remember that every flower had to go through a whole lot of dirt to get there. So do not grieve about a bitter experience. The present is slipping by while you are regretting the past and worrying about the future. Regret will not prevent tomorrow's sorrows; it will only rob today of its strength. — Barbara Johnson

I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft carrier [actually, it was in an anti-aircraft gun emplacement, not a carrier], which looks like I was trying to shoot at American planes. [Actually, that was her intention in posing for the photograph the way she did.] It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless. — Jane Fonda

What do I have left after running away from believing? I've come to think that even if I believe in people and get hurt it is much better than regretting not doing so. — Hotaru Odagiri

When men are not regretting that life is so short, they are doing something to kill time. — E.W. Howe

I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my heart led me to and wondering what life had been like if I'd just been myself. — Brittany Finamore

You're not living if you're not regretting. — Nicola Yoon

I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant ... I'm going to enjoy every second, and I'm going to know I'm enjoying it while I'm enjoying it. — Jean Webster

Regretting the past does not prevent me from repeating it. — Mason Cooley