Regret is a cognitive and emotional experience characterized by the feelings of sadness, anger, frustration, guilt, or shame following an event that one wishes one could undo.
Regret is a natural feeling that accompanies many things in life. Sometimes it’s easy to predict what situations will cause regret. For example, you may have regrets about a decision you’ve made in the past if the decision had negative consequences for you or others. You may also have regrets if your actions led to a situation where it was difficult to take steps back without any regret.
Some people regret their decisions and may even feel the urge to undo them. Other people regret not taking a chance or not following their dreams.
In the business world, regret can be hard to avoid, sometimes more so because of uncontrollable outside factors such as timing and resources.
Here are some most inspiring quotes that will help you move forward from things you didn’t do without feeling frustrated or disappointed in yourself.
39 Inspirational Regret Quotes To Move Forward
1. “Heartbreak could be lived with if it weren’t accompanied by regret.” ― Laura Kasischke
2. “One doesn’t recognize the really important moments in one’s life until it’s too late.” ― Agatha Christie
3. “Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have done but for the things we haven’t done.” ― Chad Michael Murray
4. “Regret is mostly caused by not having done anything.” ― Charles Bukowski
5. “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” ― George Halas
6. “Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘It might have been.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
7. “Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been.” ― Hilary Clinton
8. “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” ― Alexander Graham Bell
9. “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
10. “You can’t regret the life you didn’t lead.” ― Junot Díaz
11. “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
12. “Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” ― Victoria Holt
13. “If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.” ― Mercedes Lackey
14. “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” ― John Barrymore
15. “Sensitive people either love deeply or they regret deeply. There really is no middle ground because they live in passionate extremes.” ― Shannon L. Alder
16. “A man has cause for regret only when he sows and no one reaps.” ― Charles Goodyear
17. “Have you ever hoped for something? And held out for it against all the odds? Until everything you did was ridiculous? – Ali Shaw
18. “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
19. “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
20. “It’s not what your are, it’s what you don’t become that hurts.” ― Oscar Levant
21. “There are two kinds of guilt: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.” ― Sabaa Tahir
22. “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!” ― John Greenleaf Whittier
23. “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” ― Shannon L. Alder
24. “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” ― Harriet Beecher Stowe
25. “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
26. “Something you need most might be something you turn away from, something you turn away from might be something you regret, and something you regret, in the end, might cost you the one chance you ever had.” ― Brian Judge
27. “There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” ― Charles Dickens
28. “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
29. “If I’m sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow? – José Saramago
30. “I say things I regret constantly, and I just can’t help it.” ― Kathy Griffin
31. “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other path, no other way, no day but today.” ― Jonathan Larson
32. “Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.” ― Arthur Miller
33. “Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can’t build on it – it’s only good for wallowing in.” ― Katherine Mansfield
34. “Living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved in reverse.” ― Jodi Picoult
35. “The mistakes I’ve made are dead to me. But I can’t take back the things I never did.” ― Jonathan Safran Foer
36. “The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable.” ― Oscar Wilde
37. “You can’t regret the life you didn’t lead.” ― Junot Díaz
38. “Regret of neglected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit.” ― Rafael Sabatini
39. “Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently.” ― Charles Dudley Warner
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