100+ regret quotes about love and mistakes to help you let go

Regret can be all too consuming and numbing that you cannot function. The danger is that when you dwell on it, it makes your present life feel pointless. Since regret has a strong hold on people, sometimes you need to hear positive things to move on. These regret quotes are the first step to letting go and forgiving yourself.

Everyone has experienced regrets in their life. However, how you deal with mistakes is what makes a difference. Taking ownership of your part is essential in moving on, and learning from your mistakes will ensure you do not repeat them. Regret quotes are great to help you make peace with the mistakes you have made.

Why are regret quotes necessary?

Regret is crippling. It blocks any positive change and forces you to relive your mistakes. This can negatively affect both your emotional and mental health. So it is necessary to move on from regret. However, this is easier said than done.

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So, when you want help and feel better but cannot muster the motivation yourself, read the regretful quotes in this list. They should help you learn that the past does not have absolute power over the present and future.

What is a famous quote about regret?

I'd rather regret the things I've done than than regret the things I haven't done. - Lucille Ball

Regret quotes about love and mistakes to help you let go

Whatever the reason is that you are drowning in regret, the quotes below will give you the strength to keep going. Remember that every single human has somehow done something they regret. You are not the first person to make a mistake and won't be the last.

Quotes about regret

Everyone might deal with regret differently but the common thing is feeling like you can't move on. When you are stuck, wallowing and start thinking that the horrible feeling might never go away, motivate yourself with the regret quotes below:

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• I don't have nothing to regret at all in the past, except that I might've unintentionally hurt somebody else or something.- Jimi Hendrix
• One can never regret the decisions made at the time you make them, because that can only lead to bitterness and sadness. - David Nutter
• I regret nothing in life; even if my past was full of hurt, I still look back and smile because it made me who I am today.
• The longer our trail of regrets, the more we tend to value the importance of making wise decisions. - Bob Santos
• 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
• I think I don’t regret a single ‘excess’ of my responsive youth – I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn’t embrace. - Henry James
• Don't live your life regretting yesterday. Live your life so that tomorrow you won't regret today. – Catherine Pulsifer
• Regret for what we did can be tempered by time; regret for what we did not do is inconsolable. – Sydney Harris
• Don't waste your time angry with regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy. – Roy T. Bennett
• We don’t have to be defined by the things we did or didn’t do in our past. Some people allow themselves to be controlled by regret. Maybe it’s a regret, maybe it’s not. It’s merely something that happened. Get over it. - Pittacus Lore
• It’s regrets that make painful memories. When I was crazy I did everything just right. - Mark Vonnegut
• Life is short to keep living it with regrets. So try your best to make yourself forget.
• All one can do is wish that they end up with the right regrets. – Arthur Miller

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Mistake and regret quotes

Some of the worst regrets involve mistakes you made. The guilt can eat you alive. However, you might feel better once you remember that mistakes are not just inevitable but can be valuable lessons.

Remember, nobody is perfect, so learn to forgive yourself and avoid repeating the same mistakes. For more motivation, read the excellent mistake and regret quotes below:

• One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be rather than being yourself. – Shannon L. Alder
• Don't let your mistakes linger around you. Instead, keep them under your feet and let them be your stepping stones. Never regret it; if it's good, it's wonderful; if it's bad, it's an experience.
• We all do things we wish we could undo. Those regrets 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
• If only I knew. Those are the two saddest words ever. – Mercedes Lackey
• If you ever react with anger, it will overtake you. You will say something or do something you regret. - Rhonda Hart
• Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead! - Swami Vivekananda
• Learn from mistakes but never regret them. One day you will realise those wrong choices sometimes lead to the right places.
• Start wide, expand further, and never look back. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Don’t look back unless it’s a good view. - Tupac Shakur
• I walk slowly, but I never walk backward. - Abraham Lincoln
• I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now. - Edna Mode, 'The Incredibles'
• 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. - Swami Sivananda
• Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. - Henry David Thoreau
• The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did. - Jonathan Safran Foer
• I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so. To punish me with this, and this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister. William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet'
• I fall, I rise, I make mistakes, I live, I learn, I have been hurt, but I'm alive. I'm human, I'm not perfect, but I'm thankful.
• Don't regret your mistakes. You'll always make mistakes. The better you are, the less mistakes you make. The only way to get better is to thoroughly analyze your mistakes. - James Altucher
• I don't have many regrets. I regret mistakes, particularly those that damage other people, and we've all made some of those. But I'm not sad about change. - John Gutfreund
• We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us. - Lucy Maud Montgomery
• What's done cannot be undone - William Shakespeare, 'Macbeth'
• I'm trying this thing where I don't regret as much 'cause it doesn't really work that well to regret things. - James Arthur
• A good heart is better than all the heads in the world. - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
• We all make mistakes in life that's true. Some little, some big, some simple and some more complex. Some mistakes we regret forever. - Rashard Royster

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Sad regret quotes

Sadness is an overwhelming emotion and sometimes needs company. When you feel sad and need regret quotes that reflect your despondent state, try these below. These quotes will remind you that you are not alone in the world.

• It’s sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open, in a way — cracks you open to feeling. When you try to avoid the pain, it creates greater pain. — Jennifer Aniston
• Crying is cleansing. There’s a reason for tears, happiness or sadness. — Dionne Warwick
• Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water. — Christopher Morley
• Words are tears that have been written down. Tears are words that need to be shed. Without them, joy loses all its brilliance and sadness has no end. — Paulo Coelho
• Never regret anything you've had in life because, at one time, it was what you wanted.
• The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. — Kahlil Gibran
• There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have a feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well. So I take the memories as they come, accepting them all, letting them guide me whenever I can. — Nicholas Sparks, “Dear John”
• Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. — Henry David Thoreau
• What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses. — John Irving, “The Cider House Rules”
• A wound that goes unacknowledged and unwept is a wound that cannot heal. — John Eldredge

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Motivational regret quotes

Wallowing in self-pity or raging in anger for what could have been can be detrimental to your mental health. Strong negative feelings even have the power to impact your physical health.

Read these motivation regret quotes out loud if you can. You will feel better and positive about the present and future.

• The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable. - Oscar Wilde
• Every step towards your dream today is a step away from your regret tomorrow. - Steve Maraboli
• Our biggest regrets are not for the things we have done but for the things we haven't done. - Chad Michael Murray
• Living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved in reverse. - Jodi Picoult
• Never look back and regret, look back and smile at what you have learned. - Michelle C. Ustaszeski
• Forget about the door that closed and focus on the open one, or you might regret it
• Never regret anything you have done with love; nothing is lost that is born of the heart. – Basil Rathbone
• I'm not a fan of dwelling in the past; I don't wallow in old events and emotions. I don't waste my time regretting it. There is no use repeating the details of what already happened. – Yanni
• The worst thing to do is to try to cling to something that's gone or recreate it. – Johnette Napolitano
• When one door closes, another one opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones that open for us. – Alexander Graham Bell

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Regret quotes about relationships

If your relationship ended and left you with lots of regrets, these quotes can empathize with your feelings and make you feel better. Losing the person who meant the world to you is heartbreaking and it's even worse if you think your actions contributed to the loss.

Quotes about regrets and love

These love regret quotes will serve to remind you that people can fail in love, regret their actions, accept the loss and move on. As you go through heartbreak, remember:

• And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on. — Lord Byron
• Love is nothing without any action. Trust is nothing without proof. Regret is nothing without change
• It’s so devastating to come to terms with speaking of someone in past tense when you used to see them as your present and your future. — Taylor Swift
• Hurting people you love is the heaviest kind of regret. - Charlotte Eriksson
• Looking back, I have this to regret, too often, when I loved, I did not say so.– David Grayson
• When I fall, let me fall without regret like a leaf. - Wendell Berry
• You could be happy and I won't know. But you weren't happy the day I watched you go...Most of what I remember makes me sure. I should have stopped you from walking out the door - Snow Patrol, 'You Could Be Happy'
• We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy. - Walter Anderson
• Once beneath the stars. The universe was ours. Love was all we knew. And all I knew was you… - The Moody Blues, 'Your Wildest Dreams'
• Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken. - Albert Camus
• How was I supposed to know. She was slowly letting go. - Toby Keith, 'She Never Cried In Front of Me'
• There was something in everything about you. Baby come back, you can blame it all on me. I was wrong, and I just can't live without you...- Player, 'Baby Come Back'
• Broken trust forces us, first, to acknowledge a painful reality we may have chosen to ignore, then, to make some difficult decisions. - Dr. Jane Greer
• For trust not him that hath once broken faith. - William Shakespeare, 'Henry VI', Part 3
• I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It’s okay if you have to leave us. It’s okay if you want to stop fighting. - Alexandria DaCosta
• Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it. - Rafiki, 'The Lion King'
• Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart. — José N. Harris, “MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love”
• 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

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Regret quotes for him

The pain of being hurt by your boyfriend or husband can feel like it will tear you apart. Whether you were betrayed or couldn't love them right, the end of your love is bound to hurt. Here are regret quotes to pick you up or send to him:

• Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option. – Mark Twain
• I hope you realise one day you hurt one girl who would never hurt you. You walked out on a girl who would never have walked out on you.
• I will get over him. I don't know how but I promise I will.
• Maybe it's time to let him go. Find someone who truly appreciates you. That person is out there. – Summer Felix
• You are not my favourite mistake; you are just a simple regret. I thought I knew who you were but watch and see how fast I will forget you.
• I don’t know why they call it heartbreak. It feels like every other part of my body is broken too. - Terri Guillemets
• The worst feeling in the world is when you can’t love anyone else because your heart still belongs to the one who broke it.
• I think about you. But I don’t say it anymore. – Marguerite Duras
• I gave you my heart; I just didn’t expect to get it back in pieces
• Until this moment, I had not realized that someone could break your heart twice, along the very same fault lines. – Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
• Don’t cry when the sun is gone because the tears won’t let you see the stars. – Violeta Parra
• I wish I were a little girl again because skinned knees are easier to fix than a broken heart. – Julia Roberts
• Realized I gave my heart to someone that didn’t care at all, and I found it crying in the corner. – Mahmoud El Hallab
• One day you’ll finally see your biggest mistake was not loving me
• One of the hardest things to do in life is letting go of what you thought was real. – Kathleen Aquino
• Pain makes you stronger. Tears make you braver. Heartbreak makes you wiser.
• Some people will leave, but that’s not the end of your story. That’s the end of their part in your story. – Faraaz Kazi
• A broken heart is just the growing pains necessary so that you can love more completely when the real thing comes along. – J. S. B. Morse
• This time I wouldn’t forget him, because I couldn’t ever forgive him—for breaking my heart twice. – James Patterson
• Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake and help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for. – Mandy Hale

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Regret quotes for her

Loving is about vulnerability and sometimes the woman you loved can shatter your heart to pieces. When you are feeling heartbroken and unable to move on, these regret quotes can help.

Find below the best quotes to recover from lost love and move on:

• One day you’re going to remember me and how much I loved you, and then you’re going to hate yourself for letting me go forever. – Aubrey Drake Graham
• I will never regret you or say I wish I’d never met you. Because once upon a time, you were exactly what I needed. – Bob Marley
• I will never regret loving you, only believing you loved me too. – Rafeek Khan
• I can feel myself slowly fading from your mind. – Hritwik Ghosh
• You didn’t break my heart; you freed it. – Steve Maraboli
• I didn’t lose you. You lost me. You’ll search for me inside of everyone you’re with, and I won’t be found. – Steve Maraboli
• Sometimes a little heartbreak is a lesson, and the best thing to do is just learn the lesson. – Jon Voight
• She didn’t want love. She wanted to be loved. And that was entirely different. – Atticus
• I am not just saying sorry because I understand the difference between right and wrong. I am also sorry because our relationship is more important to me than my ego. I love you
• The page of our relationship cannot be currently displayed because of a server error. Can we please click on the refresh button and start over again? I am sorry, baby
• I will wait for you to forgive me till death if you don't forgive me now
• I never intended to hurt you. Life played a joke on me and clouded my judgement. Let me make up for all those heartbroken nights. Please forgive me for hurting you!

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Short regret quotes

Find a collection of short but powerful regret quotes below to remind you that live is still worth living and past mistakes don't define the present.

• Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today and you make your tomorrow. - L. Ron Hubbard
• Regret is like tears seeping through closed eyelids. - Galway Kinnell
• I'd rather regret doing something than not doing something. - James Hetfield
• It's better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret. - Jackie Joyner Kersee
• I'd rather regret doing something than not doing something. - James Hetfield
• It's better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret. - Jackie Joyner Kersee.
• Regret is an uneven hand, a rough palm at the cheek - tender and calloused. - Lorna Dee Cervantes
• The regret of my life is that I have not said 'I love you' often enough. - Yoko Ono
• It’s nice to look back on your life and see things as lessons, and not regrets. - Rihanna
• As Repentance follows Crime, And as changes follow Time. - Percy Bysshe Shelley
• There is nothing to regret with a job well done. - Joe Garcia
• Regret is like a mountain top from which we survey our dead life. - George Moore
• Remorse is the poison of life.- Charlotte Bronte
• If I'm honest today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow? - José Saramago

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The worst regret in life quotes

It is easy to feel like you can't ever overcome the worst regret of your life. Time freezes and the future might look bleak. However, time and time again, people have been able to heal and move on.

Below are great regret quotes that will help you feel positive again:

• Sure, you wish you did some things differently. But there is no sense in becoming burdened with regret over things you have no power to change. - Rihanna
• We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow. - Fulton Oursler
• 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
• Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy. - Roy T. Bennett
• We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. - Libba Bray
• Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. - Henry David Thoreau
• 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. - Swami Sivananda
• If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret. - Jim Carrey
• 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
• 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

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Deep regret quotes

Looking for profound quotes that can touch your soul? Below are some deep regret quotes that should remind you that regret is wasted on the present. Remember that life offers you more chances than you can count.

• At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent. - Barbara Bush
• Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. - Henry David Thoreau
• 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. - Don Miguel Ruiz
• I don't regret what I've been through. I've had ups and downs, super highs and some really low lows. I've been so blessed that I could never say, 'I wish this didn't happen.' It's part of who I am. There's nothing in my life that's so ugh. - Jennifer Lopez
• If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. - Chinese Proverb
• You can never regret anything you do in life. You kind of have to learn the lesson from whatever the experience is and take it with you on your journey forward. - Aubrey O'Day
• Saints are ordinary people who do what they do for the love of Jesus, say what they must say without fear, love their neighbor even when they are cursed by him, and live without regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow. - Mother Angelica
• The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again I'd make all the same mistakes - only sooner. - Tallulah Bankhead
• Sometimes over things that I did, movies that didn't turn out very well - you go, 'Why did you do that?' But in the end, I can't regret them because I met amazing people. There was always something that was worth it. - Robin Williams

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How do you deal with regret?

Recognizing and accepting your regret-related sentiments is the best approach to handle them. This encourages you to consider methods you could employ to lessen the suffering of comparable future events.

Is regret a good thing?

Regret is a normal human emotion. Sometimes regret is good as it shows remorse and gives you a chance to learn a lesson. Other times, regret is undesirable since it has negative physical and psychological effects. You should always practice self-forgiveness and moving past the past.

What is the quote better to regret?

It's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you HAVEN'T done.

What is said about regret?

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.

Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. - Hilary Clinton.

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Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently. - Charles Dudley Warner.

What is the pain of regret quote?

We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret - Jim Rohn

What is a powerful quote about regret?

Regret is the worst human emotion. If you took another road, you might have fallen off a cliff. I'm content. - William Shatner

Everyone has made mistakes in life that they have regretted. Dealing with regrets from past mistakes makes a difference, whether they hold you back or you move past them. You must own up, express your feelings, and learn from your mistakes. The regret quotes above will help you during this difficult moment.

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Source: Legit.ng