55 Regret Quotes for a Happier Life
What do you regret the most? Not getting your college degree? Turning down a job? Breaking up with someone who loved you? We all have regrets in life, it is part of our human experience and an inevitable consequence of making choices. Anytime we have to make a decision or choose a direction, there is an opportunity for regret.
The problem begins when we are tempted to look back, concocting imaginary scenarios in which things would have played out differently, with a more favorable outcome, and so we start blaming ourselves for our past mistakes and the opportunities we lost, feeling disappointment and sadness over perceived better choices. Regret is a toxic feeling and clinging on to it can be crippling for our physical and mental health, so you should not let it make you a prisoner of the past and miss out on the present moment. Our lives are shaped by the choices we make every day. Some are good and some are bad, but we must realize it is part of living life.
Instead of ruminating over the past you should focus on the present moment and the life ahead, so come to peace with your past and own your mistakes, reframing that regret and viewing it as a learning opportunity for growth. Use these valuable experiences to help you make better decisions in the future and harness their power to turn you into something better than you were before!
We know how mind poisoning and devastating regret can be, so we combed the net and collected the most inspirational quotes to help you cope with regret. Share them with your friends and loved ones to comfort them and boost their self-confidence. Reflect upon them to reframe your perspective and enjoy a blissful life!
Table of Contents
- Inspirational Regret Quotes to Help You Learn from your Mistakes
- No Regrets Quotes for People who Don’t Regret
- Relationship Regret Quotes for all the things you should have done better in Love
- Life Regret Quotes to Motivate you Live your Life with No Regrets
Inspirational Regret Quotes to Help You Learn from your Mistakes
There isn’t a single person in the world who hasn’t, at some point, regretted for his mistakes. The following quotes will give you a few different perspectives on the matter.
- Regret; The saddest word in the English language. Tonya Hurley
- Regret swallows broken men whole. Acceptance builds them anew. Sarah Noffke
- Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, “It might have been”. Kurt Vonnegut
- Recovery is hard. Regret is harder. Brittany Burgunder
- If I’m sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow? José Saramago
- If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world. Mercedes Lackey
- Regret is mostly caused by not having done anything. Charles Bukowski
- Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also call’d No-more, Too-late, Farewell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity. Ted Chiang
- Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets. Arthur Miller
- You cannot see the past that did not happen any more than you can foresee the future. Madeleine L’Engle
- The longer our trail of regrets, the more we tend to value the importance of making wise decisions. Bob Santos
- It’s better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret. Jackie Joyner-Kersee
- The mistakes I’ve made are dead to me. But I can’t take back the things I never did. Jonathan Safran Foe
- “No trouble ever got fixed late at night,” he said. “Midnight is for regrets”. Holly Black
- Regret is counterproductive. It’s looking back on a past that you can’t change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future. Colleen Hoover
- Speak when you’re angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret. Lawrence J. Peter
- We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us. Lucy Maud Montgomery
- There is no more disastrous mania, no more dangerous whim, than the speculation over roads not taken. Juan Gabriel Vásquez
No Regrets Quotes for People who Don’t Regret
To never regret is a path followed by many people; they find that regret is a counter-productive, or even toxic felling. Regret or no regret, the goal is to gain some wisdom and improve to the better in the future!
- Let’s not worry. It’s too late now. It will always be too late, fortunately! Albert Camus
- The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance. Napoleon Bonaparte
- I wouldn’t say I regret anything. I would say I just wish I did things better. Greg Oden
- Never REJECT yourself due to the sins you have committed. REGRET will do nothing; REPENT and do something! Israelmore Ayivor
- No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found. Samuel Beckett
- I never regret anything. Because every little detail of your life is what made you into who you are in the end. Drew Barrymore
- I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing. Somerset Maugham
- I’d never understood the injunction not to regret anything, couldn’t see how that wasn’t cowardice… China Miéville
- I have not an ounce of regret. Every link is so valuable in forming the chain that is my life. Who I am today is because of those links, and I wouldn’t change any of them. Alanis Morissette
- I don’t do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It’s too late for regrets. You’ve already done it, haven’t you? You’ve lived your life. No point wishing you could change it. Lemmy Kilmister
- I don’t regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure. I did it to the full, as one should do everything that one does. There was no pleasure I did not experience. Oscar Wilde
- How to win in life:
1 work hard
2 complain less
3 listen more
4 try, learn, grow
5 don’t let people tell you it cant be done
6 make no excuses.
Germany Kent
Relationship Regret Quotes for all the things you should have done better in Love
To love is to trust, to care for, to have faith and commitment. Once one of these is compromised, you wish you had done differently.
- One day you’ll finally see, your biggest mistake was not loving me. Nishan Panwar
- His heart missed a beat and never regretted the lovely loss. Vladimir Nabokov
- Hurting people you love is the heaviest kind of regret. Charlotte Eriksson
- Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience. Victoria Holt
- When we grow old, there can only be one regret – not to have given enough of ourselves. Eleonora Duse
- Regret doesn’t remind us that we did badly. It reminds us that we know we can do better. Kathryn Schulz
- Never regret anything you have done with a sincere affection; nothing is lost that is born of the heart. Basil Rathbone
- I have quite a robust relationship with regret. You simply don’t know what the alternative would have been. Juliet Stevenson
- The biggest regret in relationship is not feeling happy about it and realizing it after so many years. Hrishikesh Zinjarde
- I don’t regret loving you. I don’t regret trusting you. I regret giving you the power to hurt me in a way that I’ll never be able to be find again! Abhishek Tiwari
Life Regret Quotes to Motivate you Live your Life with No Regrets
While a certain amount of regret might be useful, it’s better not to cry over spilled milk but to take action and do something about it.
- One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself. Shannon L. Alder
- Ah, it’s my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me! Fernando Pessoa
- My dad used to say that living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved in reverse. Jodi Picoult
- Heartbreak could be lived with if it weren’t accompanied by regret. Laura Kasischke
- Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have done but for the things we haven’t done. Chad Michael Murray
- You can’t regret the life you didn’t lead. Junot Díaz
- No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future. Umar ibn Al-Khattab
- Sometimes I wish life was written pencil so we could erase it and write it all over again. Thisuri Wanniarachchi
- I thought of the things that had happened to me over the years, and of how little I had made happen. Julian Barnes
- Always be truthful and you will have fewer visits from regret, guilt or fear. Suzy Kassem
- I wish my life were a movie and I could take it into the editing room and totally cut this part out. And some other parts. Susane Colasanti
- You can always get another job, but you can’t get another life. Richie Norton
- Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. Sydney J. Harris
- Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can’t build on it it’s only good for wallowing in. Katherine Mansfield
- Regret is an odd emotion because it comes only upon reflection. Regret lacks immediacy, and so its power seldom influences events when it could do some good. William O Rourke
The things we regret the most are the things we didn’t do, like dreams never pursued, words left unspoken, missed opportunities and chances not taken, but instead of feeling depressed and beating ourselves for our past mistakes, we must replace negative self-talk with self-compassion and turn our regrets into opportunities for growth and change.
Life is full of choices and making mistakes is unavoidable and part of the learning experience, so stop obsessing about the past, embrace the present moment and focus your attention on building the future. Do not miss out on life! Do the things you will regret not doing!
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