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Regret is a feeling of sadness about the past

• Regret: Feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over (something that one has done or failed to do).  Oxford Dictionary
• Regret: A feeling of sadness about something sad or wrong or about a mistake that you have made, and a wish that it could have been different and better.  Cambridge Dictionary
• Regret: To feel sorrow or remorse for (an act, fault, disappointment, etc.).  Dictionary.com
• Sadness,  The past, Disappointment,  Guilt.  Shame,  Nostalgia,  Apologising

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Regret is the saddest word in the English language

• Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, “It might have been. Kurt Vonnegut
• For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been. John Greenleaf Whittier
• Regret; The saddest word in the English language. Tonya Hurley
• In that moment I understood that the cruellest words in the universe are “if only.” Lisa See
• If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world. Mercedes Lackey

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Regret wastes energy and reduces your strength and power

• Regret is an appalling waste of energy…you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in. Katherine Mansfield
• We waste half our strength in a useless regretting; We sit by old tombs in the dark too long. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• There is no value in grief or regret because regret is always talking about the past, and you have no power there. You can’t vibrate in your past. You are doing all of your vibrating in your now. So whenever you are feeling regret or grief, you’ve vibrated out of the range of your Inner Being and you feel the emptiness of it. Abraham-Hicks
• Waste,  Energy management

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Regret is hindsight, and almost always comes too late

• 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
• Regret is insight that comes a day too late.
• Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Billy Wilder

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Regret stops you from living today and seeing today’s opportunities

• Regrets can hold you back and can prevent the most wonderful things taking place in your lives. Eileen Caddy
• Opportunities fly 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
• Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow. Ron Hubbard
• Don’t let the past hold you back; you’re missing the good stuff.
• Letting go of the past means that you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now. Don Miguel Ruiz
• To regret the past is to forfeit the future. Chinese Proverb
• Embrace today,  Opportunity

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Regret is often false and misplaced

• Often regret is very false and displaced, and imagines the past to be totally other than it was. John O’Donohue

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No amount of regret can ever change the past

• There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled. Sophocles
• We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it’s like chasing clouds. Libba Bray
• In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour. Stefan Zweig
• A ton of regret never makes an ounce of difference. Grenville Kleiser
• Only in your imagination can you revise. Fay Wray

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Don’t regret doors closing for new ones always open

• When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. Alexander Graham Bell
• Making a fresh start

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Don’t crucify yourself between regret of the past and fear of the future for that robs you of today

• Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves – regret for the past and fear of the future. Fulton Oursler
• If we spend our time with regrets over yesterday, and worries over what might happen tomorrow, we have no today in which to live.
• A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore, a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future. Oliver Goldsmith
• If you have one eye on yesterday, and one eye on tomorrow, you’re going to be cockeyed today.
• Pre-occupation with the future

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Don’t let the past steal your present

• Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. Jonathan Larson
• Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today. John Wooden
• Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. Henry David Thoreau
• Don’t let the past steal your present. Terri Guillemets
• With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Waste not fresh tears over old griefs. Euripides
• Live in the present,  The gift of now

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Focus rather on making today a day you will not regret tomorrow

• Forget yesterday. It’s gone and you will never get it back. Focus on making today a day you will not regret tomorrow. Stephen Mills
• Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other path, no other way, no day but today. Jonathan Larson

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Finish each day and be done with it

• Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• What’s done is done. Hilliard MacBeth

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Realise that some regret in life is inevitable …

• I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do 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
• It took me less than half a lifetime to realize that regret is one of the few guaranteed certainties. Sooner or later everything is touched by it, despite our naive and senseless hope that just this time we will be spared its cold hand on our heart.  Jonathan Carroll
• Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets. Arthur Miller

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… and it’s human nature to want to revise or undo certain things

• Sometimes I wish life was written pencil so we could erase it and write it all over again. Thisuri Wanniarachchi
• It is human nature to want to go back and fix things or change things that we regret. John Gray

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The important thing is not to wallow in your regret or hold on to it

• Not everything’s perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It’s when you feel it all the time and can’t do anything about it… that’s when you get into trouble. Sarah Dessen
• Letting go

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If you’re feeling regret, allow yourself to feel its full sorrow, then let it go

• 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
• Letting go of emotions through mindfulness

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Through reflection, change what your painful past experience means to you

• No matter what has happened in your life, you have the power to change what that event means to you and thus, change your experience, both emotionally and physically. Therein lies your power to heal. Christiane Northrup
• Sometimes letting go is simply changing the labels you place on an event. Looking at the same event with fresh eyes. Steve Maraboli
• We cannot change past events, no matter how painful, but we can always intend how we ‘feel’ about them and heal ourselves. Robert Anthony
• Reflection,  Interpretation

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Then fix your eyes forward on what you can change, not back on what you cannot

• It’s better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret. Jacki Joyner-Kersee
• Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change. Tom Clancy
• Stay away from what might have been and look at what will be. Marsha Petrie Su
• To be happy, drop the words if only and substitute instead the words next time. Smiley Blanton
• I have learned that sometimes ‘sorry’ is not enough. Sometimes you actually have to change. Claire London
• Regrets over the past should chasten the future. James Ellis
• Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past. Tryon Edwards
• Clinging to the past is the problem. Embracing change is the answer. Gloria Steinem
• Know what you cannot control

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Let go of the past by accepting it as it is

• Renew, release, let go. Yesterday’s gone. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. You can’t “should’ve” done something. You can only DO something. Renew yourself. Release that attachment. Today is a new day! Steve Marabol
• Accept your past without regret, handle your present with confidence, and face your future without fear.
• Only by acceptance of the past can you alter it. S. Eliot
• Acceptance

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Realise your life has unfolded as it should …

• There is nothing for you to go back and live over, or fix, or feel regret about now. Every part of your life has unfolded just right. And so — now — knowing all that you know from where you now stand, now what do you want? The answers are now coming forth to you. Go forth in joy, and get on with it. Abraham/Hicks
• Sometimes the wrong choices bring us to the right places.
• Divine order

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… for what happened in the past has made you who you are today

• I’ve never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don’t understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now. Sophia Loren
• 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 don’t believe in regret, I feel everything leads us to where we are and we have to just jump forward, mean well, commit and just see what happens. Angelina Jolie

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Realise there is a gift in every past experience, be it good or bad

• Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience. Victoria Holt
• I don’t have regrets, there are only lessons. You learn from them, and you become a better person. Nicole Polizzi
• I have no regrets in my life. I think that everything happens to you for a reason. The hard times that you go through build character, making you a much stronger person. Rita Mero
• Never regret your past. Rather embrace it as the teacher that it is. Robin S. Sharma
• When looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. Joseph Campbell
• Life is a gift

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Learn from mistakes and failure, but don’t brood over them

• Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future. Sivananda
• Having harvested all the knowledge and wisdom we can from our mistakes and failures, we should put them behind us and go ahead, for vain regretting interferes with the flow of power into our own personalities. Edith Johnson
• You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone.  Close the door on the past.  You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.  Johnny Cash
• Failure,  Mistakes,  Learning

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Then consign your mistakes and failures to the past where they belong

• One reason God created time was so that there would be a place to bury the failures of the past. James Long
• Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it – torn up to irrecoverable tatters. Samuel Butler
• Letting go

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Don’t define yourself by your past mistakes and struggles

• We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Steve Maraboli

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Rather have a life full of mistakes than a heart full of regret

• I’d rather have a life full of mistakes than a heart full of regret.
• The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner. Tallulah Brockman Bankhead

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Let go of the past by forgiving yourself

• Forgive yourself. Let the past go. You did the best you could at the time with the understanding, awareness, and knowledge that you had. Now you are growing and changing, and you will live life differently. Louise L. Hay
• You did then what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better. Maya Angelou
• Self-forgiveness

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Live your life in a way that it won’t end in regret

• We must each lead a way of life with self-awareness and compassion, to do as much as we can. Then, whatever happens we will have no regrets. The Dalai Lama
• Here is a sovereign talisman against regret: never do that which might engender it. David Mamet

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Live a life so full you’ll never regret not having fully lived

• Most people leave this life with the greatest pain a human can experience—regret. Looking all the way back across their lives, they say, when it’s too late, ‘My God, I could have done something great. I had the chance, but I didn’t have the courage.’ Let that not be you. James Arthur Ray
• Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it could have been had you not been afraid to live it. Caroline Myss
• The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only thing people regret is that they didn’t live boldly enough, that they didn’t invest enough heart, didn’t love enough. Nothing else really counts at all. Ted Hughes,
• How terrible it would be to come to the end of your life and realize you did not live it. Garold N. Larson
• I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending that haunts our sleep so much as the fear … that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived. Rabbi Harold Kushner
• I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. Diane Ackerman
• I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dripped it carelessly, Ah! I didn’t know, I held opportunity. Hazel
• One regret, dear world, that I am determined not to have when I’m lying on my deathbed is that I did not kiss you enough. Hafez
• In terms of days and moments lived, you’ll never again be as young as you are right now, so spend this day, the youth of your future, in a way that deflects regret. Invest in yourself. Have some fun. Do something important. Love somebody extra. In one sense, you’re just a kid, but a kid with enough years on her to know that every day is priceless.  Victoria Moran
• I wouldn’t waste a day, not an hour, not a moment. Take what you want and damn caution. Live, enjoy. Feed ravenously. Or the biggest regret you’ll have at the end of your life is wasted time. Nora Roberts
• To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable. Erich Fromm
• Go to the effort. Invest the time. Write the letter. Make the apology. Take the trip. Purchase the gift. Do it. The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret. Max L. Lucado
• Being fully alive,  Embrace the experience of life

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Remember, it’s the things you don’t do that you’ll most regret

• The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. Harriet Beecher Stowe
• The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn’t commit when he had the opportunity. Helen Rowland
• As you grow older, you’ll find the only things you regret are the things you didn’t do. Zachary Scott
• You’ll seldom experience regret for anything that you’ve done. It is what you haven’t done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments. Using them up in any self- defeating ways means you’ve lost them forever. Wayne Dyer
• I’d rather regret the things I have done than the things that I haven’t. Lucille Ball
• Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have done but for the things we haven’t done. Chad Michael Murray
• Success is never wondering “what if…?” Karrie Huffman
• The mistakes I’ve made are dead to me. But I can’t take back the things I never did. Jonathan Safran Foer
• 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 Smith
• It’s the things I might have said that fester. Clemence Dane
• The only things I regret… are the things I didn’t do. Joe Karbo
• Rarely do you regret what you have done nearly as much as what you have failed to do. Jeffrey Fry

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Address things today that could turn into regrets later

• Address things now that could otherwise turn into regrets. Jane Fonda
• I like to say that what we all need to do is look ahead five years and predict what things in our current life we will most regret. Then we must take actions today to prevent those regrets from being realized. Robin Sharma
• Face challenges head-on

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To avoid regret, follow your heart irrespective of what others say

• 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 Renée
• I have no regrets. I wouldn’t have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say. Ingrid Bergman
• The heart,  Do what you love

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To avoid regret, simply do the best you can in any circumstance

• Always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret. Miguel Angel Ruiz
• Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. George Halas
• Do your best

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Recognise that your best will change from moment to moment

• Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self- judgment, self- abuse and regret. Don Miguel Ruiz
• Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. Everything is alive and changing all the time, so your best will sometimes be high quality, and other times it will not be as good. When you wake up refreshed and energized in the morning, your best will be better than when you are tired at night. Your best will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick, or sober as opposed to drunk. Your best will depend on whether you are feeling wonderful and happy, or upset, angry, or jealous. Don Miguel Ruiz

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To avoid regret, spend time with those you love and tell them how you feel

• Spend time with those you love. One of these days you will say either, “I wish I had,” or “I’m glad I did.” Zig Ziglar
• The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Love,  Affirmation

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Beware of anger for it often leads to regret

• Speak when you’re angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret. Lawrence J. Peters
• You’ll never regret writing any letter out of love. However, it’s a good idea to reread anything you’ve written in anger. Mary Matalin
• Anger

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Here are some causes of regret to watch out for

• One of my main regrets in life is giving considerable thought to inconsiderate people. Jarod Kintz
• Ah, it’s my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!  Fernando Pessoa
• The greatest regret is being what others would want you to be rather than being yourself. Shannon L. Alder
• People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent. Bob Dylan
• It’s not what you are, it’s what you don’t become that hurts. Oscar Levant
• Procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. Today’s duties put off until tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time. Ida Scott Taylor
• When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity. George Eliot
• The most frequent cause of regret for what we have done is because its effects interfere with what we would do. Norman Macdonald
• If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself. Eubie Blake
• I have often regretted my speech, never my silence. Maxims
• I regret every chance I missed at protecting myself from being hurt.
• Regret of neglected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit. Rafael Sabatini
• The worst thing that one can do is not try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized — and never knowing. David Viscott
• You won’t regret the men you never killed, but you will regret the women you passed up. Bernard Cornwell
• … the only thing people regret is that they didn’t live boldly enough, that they didn’t invest enough heart, didn’t love enough. Nothing else really counts at all. Ted Hughes
• What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner. Colette
• Pile up too many tomorrows and you’ll find that you’ve collected nothing but a bunch of empty yesterdays. The Music Man

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Regret often goes hand in hand with grief and heart break

• Temporary feelings of regret are a normal part of the mourning process. This helps us retrieve our lost dreams. If we hold on to regret, we risk trapping ourselves in a prison of unrealized dreams from which it is difficult to escape. Barbara De Angelis
• There is nothing to regret – either for those who go or for those who are left behind. Eleanor Roosevelt
• When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough. Maurice Maeterlinck
• Heartbreak could be lived with if it weren’t accompanied by regret. Laura Kasischke
• Love lives in sealed bottles of regret. Seán O’Faoláin
• Heartbreak,  Grief

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In times of temptation, remember the pain of regret is far greater than the pain of discipline

• The pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret. Sarah Bombell
• We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. Jim Rohn
• Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid. William Cowper
• Temptation,  Self-discipline

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Regret for wasted time is just more wasted time

• Regret for time wasted can become a power for good in the time that remains, if we will only stop the waste and the idle, useless regretting. Arthur Brisbane
• Regret for wasted time is more wasted time. Mason Cooley
• Time management

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Never regret being honest or sincere

• Don’t ever regret being honest. Period. Taylor Swift
• If I’m sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow? José Saramago
• Honesty

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Never regret trusting someone

• Never regret trusting someone. It proves you have a heart. But if he turns out to be a lying worm … I’m not going to waste my time crying. Because I am way too fabulous for that. Jude Watson
• Trust

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• Christmas is not the time for regrets; that’s what anniversaries are for.  Ed O’Neill
• Don’t regret doing things, regret getting caught
• If you don’t set goals, you can’t regret not reaching them.  …Yogi’ Berra
• If you’re going to do something tonight that you’ll be sorry for in the morning, sleep late. Henry Youngman
• My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.  Woody Allen
• My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink enough Champagne. Robert Noecker
• Regret: Insight that comes a day too late.
• Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.  Ambrose Bierce
• The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he has not been caught.  L. Mencken
• To avoid mistakes and regrets, always consult your wife before engaging in a flirtation. W. Howe

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