concept

regrets Quotes

26 of the best book quotes about regrets
01
Share
“Most of the time, everyone deserves more than one chance. We all do things we regret now and then. You just have to carry them with you.”
Celeste Ng
author
Little Fires Everywhere
book
Mia Warren
character
responsibility
taking responsibility
second chances
regrets
concepts
02
Share
″‘Fly you high, Gregor the Overlander,’ said Vikus. Gregor struggled with how to respond. Should he ignore Vikus? Let him know that none of them, not even an Overlander, could forgive him? Just as he had steeled himself against replying, Gregor thought of the last two years, seven months, and was it fifteen days now? There were so many things he wished he’d said to his dad when he’d had the chance. Things like how special it was when they went on the roof at night and tried to find the stars. Or how much he loved it when they took the subway out to the stadium to watch a baseball game. Or just that he felt lucky that out of all the people in the world, his dad was his dad. He didn’t have room inside him for any more unspoken words. The bats were rising into the air. He only had a second. ‘Fly you high, Vikus!’ he yelled. ‘Fly you high!’ Vikus turned back, and Gregor could see tears shining on his cheeks. He lifted up a hand to Gregor in thanks.” And then they were gone.”
03
Share
“I wish that I had not been acquainted with the future.”
04
Share
“I’ve been thinking it over for years. While we loved each other we didn’t need words to make ourselves understood. But people don’t love forever. A time came when I should have found the words to keep her with me – only I couldn’t.”
05
Share
“Uncertain as I was as I pushed forward, I felt right in my pushing, as if the effort itself meant something. That perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of the regrettable things I’d done to others or myself or the regrettable things that had been done to me. Of all the things I’d been skeptical about, I didn’t feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that included me.”
06
Share
“Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget. Their dreams become one of those “we’ll go there next time” deferrals. The sad thing is, for many there is no “next time” because passing on the chance to cross over is an overall attitude toward life rather than a single decision.”
07
Share
“I didn’t mean anything by it, but that was one of the last memories she had of me, and I wished I could take it back.”
08
Share
“I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. ‘What if . . .’ ‘If only . . .’ ‘I wonder what would have . . .’ You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.”
09
Share
“In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.”
10
Share
“I don’t want to get old. I have this very silly fear, dear friend, that one day I’ll be old, without ever having really been young.”
11
Share
“Oh, if I had only known that day so long ago when I stood outside the parsonage in the cold, aching to belong to that circle of girls who did not want me.[…] I close my eyes and tremble with the memory. Wishing I could bring it back. Wishing. For I remember just how it was, and where I was standing and what I was feeling in that moment it was given to me to decide what to do.”
12
Share
“You know how you finish a bag of chips and you hate yourself? You know you’ve done nothing good for yourself. That’s the same feeling, and you know it is, after some digital binge. You feel wasted and hollow and diminished.”
13
Share
“Never regret your past. Rather, embrace it as the teacher that it is.”
14
Share
“You can’t regret the life you didn’t lead.”
15
Share
“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look and so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.”
16
Share
“It was too late for me to regret what had occurred during the day.”
17
Share
“I said that I was no good. That is true, but still I was not exactly a comic opera villain. I had led an easy-going reckless life, taking what invited me of pleasure, deploring and sometimes bitterly regretting consequences.”
18
Share
“It took turns that people couldn’t foresee or even understand, leaving a long trail of regret in its wake. And almost always, those regrets led to the kinds of what if questions that could never be answered.”
19
Share
“Such amusing fiction, these stories they tell. It always comes to this. If they really had a desire to live, they would’ve been more aware of how easy it is to die, would’ve chosen their actions more wisely. In these moments, you can tell they’re not regretting having hurt you, they regret doing it to your face.”
20
Share
“I lost the society and friendship of your brave father, whom I now desire more than my life once again to look upon.”
21
Share
“My death would be regretted, yours would not.”
22
Share
“The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ is the first book in the Adrian Mole series of comedic fiction.The book is written in a diary style, and focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenager who believes himself to be an intellectual.”
23
Share
“I once asked her if she ever went to bed with any regrets. She quickly told me, ‘Every night, son. I just forget em by the time I wake up.”
24
Share
″‘Now that I think about it, I do have one regret.’ ‘Much better,’ he said. ‘Now we’re getting somewhere.’ He clicked his pen back open. ‘Let’s hear it.’ ‘Pencils... I regret not having more of them.‘”
25
Share
“Regrets don’t leave. They weren’t mosquito bites. They itch for ever.”
26
Share
“I’m horribly late. What will they think of me? It was awful of me to come with you. I’m always doing awful things. That’s a secret between you and me.”

Recommended quote pages

View All Quotes

Bookroo

Book Clubs

Follow Bookroo