The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Soren Kierkegaard2 quotes
I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations-one can do either this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it-you will regret both. — Soren Kierkegaard · 1843Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy. — Soren Kierkegaard · 1843Charles Dickens1 quote
No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunities misused! — Charles Dickens · 1843Daniel1 quote
You've got nothing to lose, and you'll always regret it if you don't. — Daniel · 2003E.M. Forster1 quote
Of all means to regeneration Remorse is surely the most wasteful. It cuts away healthy tissues with the poisoned. It is a knife that probes far deeper than the evil. — E.M. Forster · 1910Earl Partridge1 quote
Don't ever let anyone ever say to you, 'You shouldn't regret anything.' Don't do that, don't! You regret what you fucking want! And use that, use that, use that regret for anything, anyway you want. You can use it, okay? — Earl Partridge · 1999General George S. Patton1 quote
Now, there's one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home and you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now, when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you, "What did you do in the great World War II?" you won't have to say, "Well...I shoveled shit in Louisiana." — General George S. Patton · 1969Geoff Dyer1 quote
Have regrets. They are fuel. — Geoff Dyer · 2010Henry David Thoreau1 quote
Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. — Henry David Thoreau · 1839James Arlington Wright1 quote
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life. — James Arlington Wright · 1961Jean-Jacques Rousseau1 quote
Remorse sleeps during a prosperous period but wakes up in adversity. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1781Joel Barish1 quote
I wish I had stayed, too. Now I wish I had stayed. I wish I had done a lot of things. I wish I had... I wish I had stayed. I do. — Joel Barish · 2004John Greenleaf Whittier1 quote
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!" — John Greenleaf Whittier · 1856John Williams1 quote
You live all your life on lies, and then maybe when you're ready to die, it comes to you-that there's nothing, nothing but yourself and what you could have done. — John Williams · 1960Kazuo Ishiguro1 quote
What can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services. What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment. — Kazuo Ishiguro · 1989Mitch Albom1 quote
Nothing haunts like the things we don't say. — Mitch Albom · 2009Pat Sr.1 quote
You gotta pay attention to the signs. When life reaches out a moment like this, it's a sin if you don't reach back. I'm telling you its a sin if you don't reach back! It'll haunt you for the rest of your days like a curse. — Pat Sr. · 2012Ricky Roma1 quote
When you die, you're gonna regret the things that you don't do. — Ricky Roma · 1992Saito1 quote
Do you want to take a leap of faith or become an old man filled with regret waiting to die alone? — Saito · 2010Sinclair Lewis1 quote
I've never done a single thing I've wanted to in my whole life! I don't know 's I've accomplished anything except just get along. — Sinclair Lewis · 1922Terry Malloy1 quote
You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. — Terry Malloy · 1954W.B. Yeats1 quote
Things said or done long years ago,
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled. — W.B. Yeats · 1933William Cowper1 quote
Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid. — William Cowper · 1782