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Regret Quotes

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Regret Quotes

“It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis ought to perish rather than a hundred thousand virtuous citizens; Louis must die that the country may live”

May Country Dies Regret Ought Citizens Thousand Hundred Virtuous

Author:Maximilien Robespierre

“There is no man ... however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived a life, the memory of which is so unpleasant to him that he would gladly expunge it. And yet he ought not entirely to regret it, because he cannot be certain that he has indeed become a wise man -- so far as it is possible for any of us to be wise -- unless he has passed through all the fatuous or unwholesome incarnations by which that ultimate stage must be preceded.”

Men Said Wisdom Certain Memories Wise Stage Youth Regret Ought Periods Ultimate Incarnation Being Wise

Book:In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In Search of Lost Time

Source: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In Search of Lost Time

“Habit is the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all.”

Men Humans Matter Human Beings Half Consciousness Regret Ought Habit Conservative Enormous Agents Miserable Habitual Indecision

Author:William James

“Translator Dlique was saying, very earnestly, “Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think? I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken. Or a duck. Or whatever they're programmed to be. You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of the night last week.”

Thinking Mean Able Lasts Night Interesting Week Middle Regret Ought Eggs Chickens Be You Ducks Inadequate Middle Of The Night Translators

Author:Ann Leckie

“Wishes of one's old life wither and shrivel like old leaves if they are not replaced with new wishes when the world changes. And the world always changes. Wishes get slimy, and their colors fade, and soon they are just mud, like all the rest of the mud, and not wishes at all, but regrets. The trouble is, not everyone can tell when they ought to launder their wishes. Even when one finds oneself in Fairyland and not at home at all, it is not always so easy to remember to catch the world in it's changing and change with it.”

Ifs World Home Remember Wish Easy Trouble Color Regret Ought Oneself Fades Replaced Mud Old Life

Book:The Fairyland Series

Source: The Fairyland Series

“There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a permanent, unalterable celestial despotism that subjected us to continual surveillance and could convict us of thought-crime, and who regarded us as its private property even after we died? How happy we ought to be, at the reflection that there exists not a shred of respectable evidence to support such a horrible hypothesis.”

Source: The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

“Why does man regret, even though he may endeavour to banish any such regret, that he has followed the one natural impulse, rather than the other; and why does he further feel that he ought to regret his conduct? Man in this respect differs profoundly from the lower animals.”

Men Feels May Doe Science Natural Animal Emotional Regret Ought Impulse Endeavour

Book:On the Origin of Species

Source: On the Origin of Species

“The past will not tell us what we ought to do, but... what we ought to avoid.”

Past Regret Ought

Book:the Revolt of the Masses

Source: the Revolt of the Masses

“The infant periods of most nations are buried in silence or veiled in fable; and the world perhaps has lost but little which it needs regret. The origin and outset of the American Republic contain lessons of which posterity ought not to be deprived: and happily there never was a case in which every interesting incident could be so accurately preserved.”

World Needs Littles Lost Nations Interesting Education Silence Cases Regret Ought Periods Lessons Republic Buried Infant Very Interesting Deprived Posterity Incidents Fables

Book:James Madison's

Source: James Madison's

“I regret, as much as any member, the unavoidable weight and duration of the burdens to be imposed; having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits. I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit.”

Government Evil Justice Regret Ought Honor Members Benefits Weight Burden Debt Spending Contrary Doctrine Permit I Regret Duration Government Spending

Book:The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790

Source: The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790