Regret Sayings and Quotes

Making mistakes is part of being human. From not spending enough time with loved ones, to eating one spicy burrito too many, we all have regrets. The trick is to learn from past missteps and move on. Don’t let regret get you down. Below you’ll find a collection of wise, inspirational and humorous regret quotes.

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many-not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Charles Dickens
They say you should not suffer through the past. You should be able to wear it like a loose garment, take it off and let it drop. Eva Jessye
We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment. Jim Rohn
Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. Voltaire
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
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 look back and regret, look back and smile at what you have learned. Michelle C. Ustaszeski
Regrets only apply when we don't learn from a situation. No sense looking back, look forward with new knowledge and no regret. Catherine Pulsifer
When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough. Maurice Maeterlinck
Consider mistakes nothing more than detours on the way to success. Learn from them, and then go on. Cindy Francis
Do not spend your youth, wandering, lost in your field of daydreams; you may wake up-spending the rest of your life-stranded on the path of regretful nightmares. Lucas Hunter
Regrets are the tears of choices not made and of good deeds left undone. Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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
The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did. Jonathan Safran Foer
It is human nature to want to go back and fix things or change things that we regret. John Gray
Only in your imagination can you revise. Fay Wray
Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Katherine Mansfield
Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently. Charles Dudley Warner
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
It's better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret. Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Regret for wasted time is more wasted time. Mason Cooley
If we spend our time with regrets over yesterday, and worries over what might happen tomorrow, we have no today in which to live. Thomas Sowell
I've got a bad case of the 3:00 am guilts - you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn't do right? Because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing. D. D. Barant
Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have done but for the things we haven't done. Chad Michael Murray
Regretting the moments I took for granted, / Moments when I was eaten by pride and hatred. / What if I had told you what I feel? / Would it change my life's wheel? Melanie Dawn Batac
When we grow old, there can only be one regret - not to have given enough for ourselves. Karen Weekes
Regret is like a mountain-top from which we survey our dead life, a mountaintop on which we pause and ponder, and very often looking into the twilight we ask ourselves whether it would be well to send a letter or some token. Elyse Sommer
Regret is like tears seeping through closed eyelids. Elyse Sommer
But when the time comes / When our last breath is drawn / When our soul and body is numb / Do we regret out what we did before we are gone? Stephanie Nix
You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend, or a parent. Peter Smith