# Quotes about remorse - Quotes: 11 - Authors: 10 - Broader topic: [Quotes about guilt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.json ## Quotes > they will dissect this last evening for years to come. What had they missed that they should have seen? What small gesture, forgotten, might have changed everything? They will pick it down to the bones, wondering how this had all gone so wrong, and they will never be sure. (p271) [Celeste Ng](https://www.leafyquotes.com/celeste-ng.md) · [Everything I Never Told You](https://www.leafyquotes.com/celeste-ng/everything-i-never-told-you.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/celeste-ng/everything-i-never-told-you/they-will-dissect.md) Topics: [loss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loss.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > “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.” (chapter 15 p250) [Celeste Ng](https://www.leafyquotes.com/celeste-ng.md) · [Little Fires Everywhere](https://www.leafyquotes.com/celeste-ng/little-fires-everywhere.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/celeste-ng/little-fires-everywhere/most-of-the.md) Topics: [forgiveness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > Yet I wondered fancifully if he had seen more clearly than they did, had sensed the threat which my presence implied – the approaching disintegration of his society and the destruction of his beliefs. Here especially it seemed that the evil that comes with sudden change would far outweigh the good.  While I was with the Arabs I wished only to live as they lived and, now that I have left them, I would gladly think that nothing in their lives was altered by my coming.  Regretfully, however, I realize that the maps I made helped others, with more material aims, to visit and corrupt a people whose spirit once lit the desert like a flame. [Wilfred Thesiger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger.md) · [Arabian Sands](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands.md) · p. 68 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands/yet-i-wondered.md) Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > He found he was a man who repented almost everything, regrets crowding in around him like moths to a light. This was actually the main difference between twenty-one and fifty-one, he decided, the sheer volume of regret. [Emily St John Mandel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel.md) · [Station Eleven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel/station-eleven.md) · p. 327 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-st-john-mandel/station-eleven/he-found-he-was.md) Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > If there was any justice in this world, I would have been a dead man at least two times over. By this, I mean simply that many times in my life the statistical probabilities of a fatal outcome have been overwhelming – thanks to my sins of excess and poor judgment and my inability to say no to anything that sounded as if it might have been fun. … [When I die], I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted and advantages squandered. [Anthony Bourdain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-bourdain.md) · [Kitchen Confidential](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-bourdain/kitchen-confidential.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-bourdain/kitchen-confidential/if-there-was.md) Topics: [pleasure](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pleasure.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > Is there not a sort of remorse that precedes sin? Was it remorse at the very fact that I existed? [Yukio Mishima](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima.md) · [Confessions of a Mask](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask.md) · p. 144 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask/is-there-not.md) Topics: [sin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sin.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > The individual, so far as he suffers from his wrongness and criticizes it, is to that extent consciously beyond it, and in at least possible touch with something higher, if anything higher exist. Along with the wrong part there is thus a better part of him, even though it may be but a most helpless germ. With which part he should identify his real being is by no means obvious at this stage; but when stage 2 (the stage of solution or salvation) arrives, the man identifies his real being with the germinal higher part of himself; and does so in the following way. He becomes conscious that this higher part is coterminous and continuous with a more of the same quality, which is operative in the universe outside of him, and which he can keep in working touch with, and in a fashion get on board of and save himself when all his lower being has gone to pieces in the wreck. [William James](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-james.md) · [The Varieties of Religious Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-james/the-varieties-of-religious-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-james/the-varieties-of-religious-experience/the-individual-so-far.md) Topics: [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > He'd undone all he could. You can be sorry, and you can be forgiven, but you can't call back the futures that your bad decisions lost. He didn't need no philosopher to tell him that. [Orson Scott Card](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card.md) · [Prentice Alvin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/prentice-alvin.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/prentice-alvin/hed-undone-all.md) Topics: [choices](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices.md), [mistakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrong-doing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean. [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world/chronic-remorse-as-all.md) Topics: [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > I react like everyone else, even like those I most despise; but I make up for it by deploring every action I commit, good or bad. [Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md) · [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/i-react-like.md) Topics: [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md) > There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself. [William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) · [The Summing Up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up.md) · p. 11 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/there-is-a-sort.md) Topics: [writers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writers.md), [remorse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/remorse.md)