Opportunity Missed Quotes & Sayings

Opportunity is often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be tuning in — Orison Swett Marden

I have always loved clothes, and the opportunity to design my own line could not be missed. It's a dream job. — Jasmine Guinness

Self-esteem doesn't come simply from dressing well, but they are both something we can control. It's a missed opportunity when women say they don't have the money, figure, etc., because style is such a way to help cultivate the way women feel about themselves. — Stacy London

Three things cannot be retrieved:
The arrow once sped from the bow
The word spoken in haste
The missed opportunity.
Ali, the Lion of Islam. — Idries Shah

Did you have a rough month? I did :( but, you know what? There's no time to dwell on a missed opportunity or worry about what I should've done or said, beating myself up & making myself miserable about my mistakes. That doesn't work. So will take notes from that, put it behind me, move on & finish the year STRONG — Pablo

Life is nothing but an opportunity for love to blossom. If you are alive, the opportunity is there - even to the last breath. You may have missed your whole life: just the last breath, the last moment on the earth, if you can be love, you have not missed anything - because a single moment of love is equal to the whole eternity of love. — Rajneesh

Now people are much more receptive because they can just go online and just Google your name and make sure you're not, you know, psycho. But, before, I think lot of opportunities were missed by a lot of girls. Also parents! The girls would go home and would say, "Oh, you know, I was just scouted." And the parents were, like, "You're not going to be a prostitute." — Michael Flutie

There was no reason to get upset over one missed opportunity when so many more lay ahead. — Andrew Beyer

And also don't forget, the reason opportunity is often missed is that it usually comes disguised as hard work. — Clifford Irving

As Adrian hurried past the Senate House he noticed two old men standing outside Bowes and Bowes. He put an extra spring in his step, a thing he often did when walking near elderly. He imagined old people would look at his athletic bounce with a misty longing for their own youth. Not that he was trying to show off or rub salt into the wounds of the infirm, he really believed he was offering a service, an opportunity for nostalgia, like whistling the theme tune from Happidrome or spinning a Diablo.
He skipped past them with carefree ease, missed his footing and fell to the ground with a thump. One of the old men helped him up. — Stephen Fry

You don't know what it's like to lose a child, but I do. When they're gone, every cold word you uttered is a scar on your soul, every missed opportunity with them a pain that will never heal. — Jeaniene Frost

If you believe that that the one opportunity you missed is the last one you'll ever get, then that is exactly what will happen: no more opportunities ever. — Stephen Richards

Those of you who are convinced that you missed your calling, open all doors keep the entrance way clear. This way you will not miss that next call. — Victoria Addino

The world needs peak performers like you to set the example of how to accept failures, dust off, and move on with your head held high. Whether you face a business failure, a divorce, a missed opportunity, a lost sale, a fumbled business presentation, or all of the above, own it, learn from it, and envision a successful future. — Michelle McCullough

You also need to show a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to impropriety. That's one of the things, again, that Republicans left on the table as a missed opportunity. — Andrea Tantaros

You watched the sunset today? You are rich! You missed it? You are poor! Try to meet the great artists in every opportunity possible to increase your wealth! And Sun is a very great artist! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Any fighter knows that regret that doesn't inform your future is wasted emotion. If you lose and dwell on the missed opportunity rather than the chances to come, you're finished. — Craig Lancaster

The studies of women's lives over time portray the role of crisis in transition and underline the possibilities for growth and despair that lie in the recognition of defeat. The studies of Betty and Sarah elucidate the transitions in the development of an ethic of care. The shifts in concern from survival to goodness and from goodness to truth are elaborated through time in these two women's lives. Both studies illustrate the potential of crisis to break a cycle of repetition and suggest that crisis itself may signal a return to a missed opportunity for growth. These portraits of transition are followed by depictions of despair, illustrations of moral nihilism in women who could find no answer to the question "why care? — Carol Gilligan

They speak little; it is as if the air has been churned up with decade's worth of fruitless pursuit and missed connections and thoughts unspoken, and they are waiting quietly for all this matter - these motes of opportunity forgone - to settle around them. — Doug Dorst

If you've as many films as I have, and missed as many opportunities as I have to do good work and been pissed off about it, you say, "Well, now you've got to start getting it right". If you get a chance, you really want to cook. And the tragedy is, when you finally feel that way about yourself, about your work, nobody wants to give you a chance. And that happens to a lot of actors. But I'm feeling very wanted these days, so there must be something in the air. — Burt Reynolds

The absurdity of it, she thought, this quest for the love of a man who was her equal. She loathed herself for it. She thought of her life (and herself) as a missed opportunity. Somewhere, back there, she had missed something. What was it? When was it? The worse horror beneath: that she hadn't missed anything, that her life was merely the sum of her choices and that her choices had led her to this: another truncated encounter; the carcinogenic belief in the idea of a Great Love; clammy sex; loneliness in the small hours. — Glen Duncan

It's yad that propels us, like a motor, onward. Yad is like envy, but it's not simply that. It's like spite, rage, anger, but more elegant, more complicated. It's like pity for someone, regret for something you did or did not do, for a chance you missed, for an opportunity you squandered. — Miroslav Penkov

One example of an uniquely Sethian approach towards initiation is for the initiate to regard his or her own life with the same urgency and need experienced as in a war zone in which every move and action must be weighed yet determined swiftly, as necessity dictates. During battle, situations such as missed opportunity, lingering sentimentality, second or third chances, or excessive contemplation would be fatal; and so it is on the sinister path. — Zeena Schreck

She was haunted by the possibility that she had missed her chance for happiness. But she had not missed her chance, she told herself, for her chance would not let her get away so easily. Each morning she was fortified by hope: the future loomed. — Amanda Coplin

I DECLARE it is not too late to accomplish everything God has placed in my heart. I have not missed my window of opportunity. God has moments of favor in my future. He is preparing me right now because He is about to release a special grace to help me accomplish that dream. This is my time. This is my moment. I receive it — Joel Osteen

My father had been opposed to my flying from the first and had never flown himself. However, he had agreed to go up with me at the first opportunity, and one afternoon he climbed into the cockpit and we flew over the Redwood Falls together. From that day on I never heard a word against my flying and he never missed a chance to ride in the plane. — Charles Lindbergh

Students should not feel as if they had missed the boat if they failed examinations and should be presented with more opportunities to further their studies. — Joseph Muscat

The opportunity is not in being momentarily popular with the anonymous masses. It's in being missed when you're gone, in doing work that matters to the tribe you choose. — Seth Godin

Publishing companies and a great many authors have missed the opportunity to capitalize on the very real relationships they create with their readers. — Vantile Whitfield

It may be tempting to look back and wring our hands over missed opportunities for change in the preceding decades. But, I'm not interested at looking in the rearview mirror except to learn. — Jennifer Granholm

I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy - for otherwise how can we manage to bear it? — Penelope Fitzgerald

Opportunity is a bird that never perches. — Claude Maxwell MacDonald

Where procrastination and excuses reign, success is highly missed than delayed. Opportunity they say comes but once. You must therefore be prepared to tap every good opportunity that appears on your way — Israelmore Ayivor

You can carry around with you a basket full of magical apples; but when people do not recognize magic, they will ask you to go and pick earthly apples and then they will laugh at you when you are unable to pick the apples of the earth; but what they don't know is that you were given hands that are made to pick the magical apples from the ancient trees and what an opportunity they have missed in not asking you for the magic ones! But this is the downfall of mankind, in that they cannot recognize magic even when it is right under their noses! Blessed are the few who can, and who ask for it. Ask me for magic, because that is what I am capable of giving. — C. JoyBell C.

Each minute wasted with a shark is a missed opportunity to enjoy being with a Dolphin — Miguel Reynolds Brandao

Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity. — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

A wasted opportunity wasn't just a missed chance, but was a wound to your future. Miss too many opportunities, thus sustaining too many wounds, and you wouldn't have a future at all. — Dean Koontz

Nothing matures a Man like RESPONSIBILITIES,
Nothing humbles him like MISSED OPPORTUNITIES,
What makes him are his CHOICES,
And nothing changes him like LOVE.
Nothing defines a Man like his CHARACTER,
Nothing teaches him like his EXPERIENCE,
What drives him is his VISION,
And nothing weakens him like BETRAYAL.
Nothing scares a Man like losing his EGO,
Nothing pursues him like his PASSION,
What interests him is his GAME,
And nothing intoxicates him like his DESIRES.
But above all, NOTHING FAVOURS A MAN
LIKE FINDING A GOOD WOMAN. — Olaotan Fawehinmi

That was the one thing she knew now. Some chances came and went, and if you missed them, you could spend the rest of your life standing alone, waiting for an opportunity that had already passed you by. — Kristin Hannah

I love you, you fucking perfect bastard. You got what you wanted. I'm completely and absolutely in love with you and your little 'yeahs.' They kill me. And for the record, I'm pretty sure I loved you that night in the tent so," she waves her hand. "Opportunity missed. You totally could've fucked a cheerleader. — J. Daniels

Oh, captive, bound, and double-chained!" cried the phantom, "who does not understand the toll of a lifetime of incessant labor by man, an immortal creature! For this flesh must pass into eternity before the good of which it is capable can be understood. How tragic not to know that a Christian spirit working kindly in its little realm of influence, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for the vast opportunities it has to be useful. Not to know that no regret can ever make amends for one missed life's opportunity! Yet such was I! Oh, such was I! — Charles Dickens

In 2008 I didn't take it all in enough. I was so wrapped up in just the competition that I missed what was going on around me. If I am given that opportunity again to go to the Olympics and be an athlete I want to take it all in because I feel like this is my last shot and I want to feel the team spirit. I want to really live and breathe the USA. — Shawn Johnson

In my past, there's also an opportunity I could have taken advantage of that I didn't, and that I wish I had. There's a thing I got rid of that I really wish I'd kept. But the train never backs up. Never. I missed those things, and I will never get a second chance. Do yourself a favor, right now, and realize two things: 1. You will keep getting older, and then you will die. 2. Everything that's ever entered your experience has lasted and will continue to last for only a brief moment in the life of the universe. This is game time, champ. You're in. You're in, playing, right now, and the clock is ticking. So stop wondering what it all means and how you'll possibly ever do X and what people will think, and get on with your life already. Stop being a pussy and go do something amazing. *** DO EPIC SHIT. — Johnny B. Truant

But to deny fate is arrogance, to declare that we are the sole shapers of our existence is madness;if you deny fate life becomes the series of missed opportunities, a regret for what never was and could have been, a remorse of what was not done and could have been done, and the present is wasted, twisted into another missed oppurtunity. — Oriana Fallaci

I've had recurring nightmares that I was loved for who I am ... and missed the opportunity to be a better man. — Muse

The reality of the Life Review is becoming part of our every day understanding. We know that after death, we have to look at our lives again; and we're going to agonize over every missed opportunity, over every case in which we failed to act. This knowledge is contributing to our determination to pursue every intuitive image that comes to mind, and keep it firmly in awareness. We're living life in a more deliberate way. We don't want to miss a single important event. We don't want the pain of looking back later and realizing that we blew it, that we failed to make the right decisions. — James Redfield

Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed. — Lily Tomlin

You missed a fine opportunity there."

Her heart raced as she whirled around. The hoarse voice was William's. He stood behind her, somewhat worse the wear for drink. He was pale in the moonlight, his hair a dark halo, hard eyes glittering with some inner fire.

"What do you want, William?"

"I want you. — Judith James

Too often, we miss out on opportunities in this life because we were too busy waiting for them to fall into our lap that we missed them tapping on our shoulder. — Daniel Willey

So I'm here, and not being one for missed opportunities, I made a list of the casting directors in New York and mark off the ones I've already met over the years. The few remaining I asked my agent and manager, "See if you can set up some meetings while I'm here." — William Mapother

Stop worrying about missed opportunities and start looking for new ones. — I.M. Pei

Throughout my life I had wandered alone, trying to find pieces of me in any place I could and when it came down to it, I was nothing but a shell of missed opportunities. — Matthew Carter

I found it wild and rather unsettling, like a tame horse realizing there was once an opportunity to be unbridled that was somehow missed. Such thoughts haunt me now and then. — Barbara Lieberman

I didn't want to be one of those women who wake up at 63 years old and realize they've missed the window of opportunity for marriage and children. — Alanis Morissette

Gary Berntsen, head of the CIA in Afghanistan there, he was a field commander. And he has a book out called "Jawbreaker." And he says we missed an opportunity at Tora Bora to get him. We put resources elsewhere. That's been a critique of the administration. Did we miss opportunities? — Alan Colmes

Overall his period in office can only be characterised as a decade of missed opportunities in which the hopes of the British people for a new kind of politics were shattered [on Tony Blair] — Menzies Campbell

Microsoft has one more shot at a role in smart phone software through its deployment on Nokia phones. Nokia is still the global market share leader in cell phones. Maybe it will work out, but this is hard to envision great success in the area coming on the heels of so much disappointment in missed opportunity in this important and visible category. — David Einhorn

How could I have missed the opportunity to pop pills with my sister who was purer than a Quaker? — Chelsea Handler

In war, where imperfect intelligence, the threat of a catastrophe, and the number of accidents are incomparably greater than any other human endeavor, the amount of missed opportunities, so to speak, is therefore bound to be greater. — Carl Von Clausewitz

A 2011 report, "Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America," found that the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta metro area was among the worst in the nation for residents trying to reach work via transit. The study, the most recent available, looked at how many people can reach work in 90 minutes between 6 and 9 a.m. on a Monday. Typical residents in the nation's largest 100 metro areas can reach about 30 percent of jobs by transit in 90 minutes, the study found. — Anonymous

I don't really have any regrets because if I choose not to do something there is usually a very good reason. Once I've made the decision I don't view it as a missed opportunity, just a different path. — Andrew Lincoln

Funny how things like that can change when you're in these kind of situations. Kash usually drove me crazy. He was so stubborn, and such a smart-ass, but I missed those annoying traits so much. I missed the way our personalities clashed and resulted in us fighting; I would give anything to fight with Kash again. The thought of having children with him used to terrify me, and now I was afraid I'd never get to have that opportunity. And I hated the nickname Sour Patch so damn much, but I would never complain about it again if it meant hearing Kash's voice. — Molly McAdams

One thing we did well the whole tournament was keep fighting. And no matter what happened the point before, missed opportunity, missed easy shot, we just played the next point and blocked it out of our mind. That's why we're the champs. — Daniel Nestor

Jace looked at him meditatively.
"Congratulations," he said. "I kind of feel like I missed an opportunity."
"W-what?" Alec stammered.
Jace shrugged. "I always knew you had a crush on me, and I kind of had a crush on you, too. I thought you should know."
"What?" Alec said again.
Clary sat up straight. "You know," she said, "do you think there's any chance that you two could ... " She gestured between Jace and Alec. "It would be kind of hot."
"No," Magnus said. "I am a very jealous warlock. — Cassandra Clare

Nothing is so irretrievably missed as an opportunity we encounter every day. — Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing. — Claire Keegan

Become aware, awake. Then you will see that everything comes and goes, all things come and pass. Life is a flux. Your consciousness is the only thing that is immovable, that is eternal. To attain it is freedom. To attain it is the goal of life. If you miss it you have missed your life and you have missed a tremendously great gift, a great opportunity. — Rajneesh

Just as, in travel, one may miss seeing the sunset because one cannot find the ticket-office or is afraid of missing the train, so in even the closest human relationships a vast amount of time and of affection is drained away in minor misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and failures in consideration or understanding. — Iris Origo

The trouble with opportunity is, it never announces when it comes. It's only after it's gone, you'd realize that you missed it. — Uday Kotak

Acting is always something I thought I could do, and I thought I would be pretty good at it, but I thought that I missed the opportunity, that it was too late. — Greg Poehler

A chance not taken is an opportunity missed. — Ken Petti

Don't allow missed opportunities of the past interfere with the opportunities that are right before you. — Ryan Robbins

Every opportunity missed is an opportunity for regret — Karl Kloppenborg

We have a violence problem in America. And no one is having a debate about the violence problem. And I think this is a missed opportunity to have an honest and open conversation in this country about why these horrifying things are happening, not simply what they're using to carry this out, but why are people doing this to begin with? — Marco Rubio

the legend of Adapa. He called up that tale now to examine it in his mind. The story went that Adapa had been a sage of Eridu, city of the god Enki. He had been taken into heaven and offered the bread and water of immortality by Anu. But he turned them down because his patron deity, Enki, had advised him against it, claiming they were the bread and water of death. So Adapa missed out on the opportunity of immortality. He was clothed with new garments and returned to Eridu to die. — Brian Godawa

It is the missed opportunity that counts, and in a love that vainly yearns from behind prison bars you have perchance the love supreme. — Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Sweeping generalizations are easy, but we are more alike than we are different. Our focus and interests may vary, or not, but to dismiss something as less relevant is a missed opportunity. — Deborah Stanish

They missed a great opportunity to shut up. — Jacques Chirac

What is left unsaid gets in the way of the relationship. What is left unasked-for is a missed opportunity. — Thomas Leonard

They would congratulate themselves every morning on keeping their integrity, and blame themselves each night for that missed opportunity. — Paulo Coelho

Barack Obama hopes his famous health care victory will mark him as a transformative president. History, however, may judge it to have been his missed opportunity to be one. — George Will

I know not, sir, whether Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not, it seems to me that he missed the opportunity of his life. — James M. Barrie

How often had she wondered what would have happened if she'd remained with Jonathan? Not often, but regularly over the years. It was impossible not to have imagined that rejected future, a life of many countries, of vast and enduring adventure, of tiny rooms and rental houses. It was the sense of missed opportunity that returned to her, frightening but real, overwhelmingly real. — Michael Stein

Nothing is so often and so irrevocably missed as the opportunity which crops up daily. — Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not. — Alain De Botton

On the morning appointed for Admiral Croft and Mrs. Croft's seeing Kellynch-hall, Anne found it most natural to take her almost daily walk to Lady Russell, and keep out of the way till all was over; when she found it most natural to be sorry that she had missed the opportunity of seeing them. — Jane Austen

You just missed a perfectly good opportunity to toast an awful Coldplay T-shirt. If I ever spontaneously combust, I hope I'm holding a whole stack of their CDs. Harper — Joe Hill

I don't think you would have missed that putt, but in these circumstances, I would never give you the opportunity. — Jack Nicklaus

I lost the match. I blame only myself for this. There were many opportunities to win. But I missed them, no one else. — Anatoly Karpov

For a long time, I missed being in the courtroom every day. I missed trial work. It was so much a part of my life. It was what I did and who I was. But over the years I did find the opportunity to realize my childhood dream of writing crime fiction. — Marcia Clark

We discussed the history of postwar Japan and how Japan had missed an opportunity to build a more functional democracy because of the focus on fighting communism driven in large part by the American occupation. — Joichi Ito

He missed an invaluable opportunity to hold his tongue. — Andrew Lang

I've seen - both in myself and my competitors - how satisfaction can lead to a lack of vigilance, then to mistakes and missed opportunities. — Garry Kasparov

Each minute we spend worrying about the future and regretting the past is a minute we miss in our appointment with life- a missed opportunity to engage life and to see that each moment gives us the chance to change for the better, to experience peace and joy. — Thich Nhat Hanh

What would be awful would be to die and look back miserably - seeing only the bad things, the opportunities missed, or what could have been. — Audrey Hepburn

Every moment of our life has a purpose, that every action of ours, no matter how dull or routine or trivial it may seem in itself, has a dignity and a worth beyond human understanding ... For it means that no moment can be wasted, no opportunity missed, since each has a purpose in man's life, each has a purpose in God's plan. Think of your day, today or yesterday. Think of the work you did, the people you met, moment by moment. What did it mean to you- and might it have meant for God? Is the question too simple to answer, or are we just afraid to ask it for fear of the answer we must give? — Walter J. Ciszek

Some of our important choices have a time line. If we delay a decision, the opportunity is gone forever. Sometimes our doubts keep us from making a choice that involves change. Thus an opportunity may be missed. — James E. Faust

Why cry about missed opportunities when you have the ability to smile at opportunities lived? The past has created who you are NOW, where we learn and grow from the past, never resting upon previous achievements or allowing past failure to paralyze us in our current endeavor. All that was has created us to be the best we currently are for our greatest hour is about to arise! — Greg Plitt

The world is in sore need of good listeners. And in our own lives, it's amazing to recognize just how valuable listening can be for us. How many mistakes have you made because you didn't listen well? Personally, I've made many - and I've missed out on some wonderful opportunities because I was more interested in sharing what I had to say than I was in listening to what someone else had to say. — Tom Walsh

I'm not making excuses for the missed opportunities of the Israelis, or the lack of generosity, the lack of empathy that I think goes hand-in-hand with the suspicion. So, yes, there is more that the Israelis need to do to really demonstrate that they do understand the pain of an oppressed people in their minds, and they want to figure out, within the bounds of security and a Jewish democratic state, what can be accomplished. — Hillary Clinton