Quotessence
Home / Topics / Remorse Quotes

Remorse Quotes

Browse 490 quotes about Remorse.

Related topics

MenRegretFeelsRepentanceIfsSinDoneGuiltMindHeartPainFeelingsShameConscienceCrimeKnowsWorldMayPeopleKindLooksPleasureSorrowSoulThinkingWayTearsTodayActionFirstsGuiltyMemoriesBelieveDoeEndsHas BeensHumansJoyLastsPunishmentRepentSaidShouldSufferingWells

Remorse Quotes

“The sea can bind us to her many moods, whispering to us by the subtle token of a shadow or a gleam upon the waves, and hinting in these ways of her mournfulness or rejoicing. Always she is remembering old things, and these memories, though we may not grasp them, are imparted to us, so that we share her gaiety or remorse.”

WayMayRememberMemoriesSeaShareShadowWaveMoodSubtleRejoiceRemorseWhisperingTokensGleamOld ThingsGaiety
Book:The Complete Fiction Collection vol III
Create image

“So I make no effort to hide my pain. I don’t ever put it all on display like this—but for today and all the rest of the days of the trial, I must. My every flinch, every flicker of pain, will be magnified a hundred times over, then dissected by the pundits and talking heads. But I’m told it’s necessary; the world needs to see me vulnerable and wounded. I cannot appear not to care or to lack remorse, but that removes a crucial component of my self- defense mechanism and leaves me bleeding for all the world to see. I suppose that’s rather the point.”

WorldNeedsSelfCareTodayPainEffortTalkingHundredDefenseTrialsVulnerableRemoveCrucialMechanismDisplayWoundedRemorseComponentsLeaving MeBleedingSelf DefenseFlickerPunditsDefense MechanismsTalking Heads
Author:Ann Aguirre
Create image

“What’s that poem again?” Will, who had been twirling his empty teacup around his fingers, stood up straight and declaimed: “Each spake words of high disdain, And insult to his heart’s best brother—” “Oh, by the Angel, Will, do be quiet,” said Charlotte, standing up. “I must go and write a letter to Aloysius Starkweather that drips remorse and pleading. I don’t need you distracting me.” And, gathering up her skirts, she hurried from the room. “No appreciation for the arts,” Will murmured, setting his teacup down.”

NeedsWritingHeartArtSaidRoomsBrotherQuietAngelStandingEmptyLettersFingersAppreciationSettingSettingsInsultGatheringRemorseNeed YouSkirtsDisdainStood UpPleadingCharlotteDon't Need YouTwirlingI Don't Need YouNo Appreciation
Book:The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess
Create image

“In my terms, I settled for the realities of life, and submitted to its necessities: if this, then that, and so the years passed. In Adrian's terms, I gave up on life, gave up on examining it, took it as it came. And so, for the first time, I began to feel a more general remorse - a feeling somewhere between self-pity and self-hatred - about my whole life. All of it. I had lost the friends of my youth. I had lost the love of my wife. I had abandoned the ambitions I had entertained. I had wanted life not to bother me too much, and had succeeded - and how pitiful that was.”

IfsFeelsYearsFirstsSelfWholeFeelingsRealityWantedLostTermToo MuchWifeYouthAmbitionFirst TimeHatredMy WifeWhole LifePityBotherReality Of LifeAbandonedRemorseGave UpSelf PityExaminingSelf HatredPitiful
Author:Julian Barnes
Create image

“I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMindMadeMatterDoneUseTodayLanguageProgressEconomicCitizensNoiseInterfereRemorseAccusedPrivate LifeNeighbourSpitSingaporeEconomic ProgressPersonal Matter
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
Create image

“And no, it wasn't shame I now felt, or guilt, but something rarer in my life and stronger than both: remorse. A feeling which is more complicated, curdled, and primeval. Whose chief characteristic is that nothing can be done about it: too much time has passed, too much damage has been done, for amends to be made.”

Has BeensMadeDoneFeelingsFeltToo MuchStrongerShameGuiltComplicatedChiefsDamageCharacteristicsRemorseAmendsPrimeval
Book:The Sense of an Ending
Create image

“I search his eyes for the slightest sign of anything, fear, remorse, anger. But there's only the same look of amusement that ended our last conversation. It's as if he's speaking the words again. "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other." He's right. We did. The point of my arrow shifts upward. I release the string. And President Coin collapses over the side of the balcony and plunges to the ground. Dead.”

IfsLooksEyeLastsLyingSidesPresidentMissingConversationDearReleaseHis EyesStringsCollapseCoinsRemorseAmusementArrowsPlungeBalconies
Author:Suzanne Collins
Create image

“I shall possess this woman; I shall steal her from the husband who profanes her: I will even dare ravish her from the God whom she adores. What delight, to be in turns the object and the victor of her remorse! Far be it from me to destroy the prejudices which sway her mind! They will add to my happiness and my triumph. Let her believe in virtue, and sacrifice it to me; let the idea of falling terrify her, without preventing her fall; and may she, shaken by a thousand terrors, forget them, vanquish them only in my arms.”

MindBelieveMayIdeasTurnsFallForgetVirtueSacrificeObjectsArmsThousandHusbandPrejudiceAddTerrorDelightDareStealingTriumphAdoreRemorsePreventingProfaneVanquish
Author:Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Create image

“Now that lilacs are in bloom She has a bowl of lilacs in her room And twists one in her fingers while she talks. "Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know What life is, you who hold it in your hands"; (slowly twisting the lilac stalks) "You let it flow from you, you let it flow, And youth is cruel, and has no remorse And smiles at situations which it cannot see." I smile, of course, And go on drinking tea.”

KnowsHandsLife IsCoursesRoomsSituationYouthGoes OnMy FriendsFlowDrinkingFingersTeaBowlsRemorseTwistsStalkingI SmileLilacDrinking Tea
Book:The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems
Create image

“For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs-as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.”

KnowsLittlesYoungOrderMy OwnEnemyPracticeWifeSacrificeDogEvolutionOffersMountainTreatsSlaveCrowdsDelightTriumphTortureHeroicSuperstitionsBloodySavagesMonkeysRemorseDecencyComradeKeepersCarried AwayDescendingBaboonsInfanticide
Author:Charles Darwin
Create image

“There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgement. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom- freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse. Herein undoubtedly lies part of the attractiveness of a mass movement”

MenLyingHateIndividualLosesDoubtMovementMassMurderShameIndependenceExtremesTyrannyCrueltyJudgementTortureTyrantsBetrayVagueBullyRemorseDecencyHesitationStirringAttractivenessRuthlessnessIndividual Independence
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image

“Whenever a warrior decides to do something, he must go all the way, but he must take responsibility for what he does. No matter what he does, he must know first why he is doing it, and then he must proceed with his actions without having doubts or remorse about them.”

KnowsWayFirstsDoeMatterActionAttitudeResponsibilityKnowledgeDoubtNo Matter WhatWarriorTaking ResponsibilityRemorseDon JuanJuanWay Of The WarriorSpiritual Warrior
Book:The Wheel Of Time: The Shamans Of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life De
Create image

“Sometimes when we're feeling sad, it's important just to feel the sadness. Like a snake shedding its skin, old feelings of remorse and regret and hurt and anger often have to come up in order to be released. On the other side we're a better person, capable of a happier life...who we are when we're no longer burdened by the buried feelings that weighed us down, or the self - defeating patterns that the pain produced.”

LifeInspirationalFeelsPersonsImportantSelfSometimesFeelingsPainOrderSidesHurtSadnessRegretCapableSkinsAngerPatternsCome UpBurdenReleaseLive LifeWho We AreBuriedHappy LifeSnakesRemorseBetter PersonLecturerFeeling SadFeeling DownHappier LifeFeeling BlueOld Feelings
Author:Marianne Williamson
Create image

“When I contemplate the accumulation of guilt and remorse which, like a garbage-can, I carry through life, and which is fed not only by the lightest action but by the most harmless pleasure, I feel Man to be of all living things the most biologically incompetent and ill-organized. Why has he acquired a seventy years life-span only to poison it incurably by the mere being of himself? Why has he thrown Conscience, like a dead rat, to putrefy in the well?”

MenFeelsYearsWellsActionPleasureConscienceGuiltMereIllPoisonOrganizedThrownFedsContemplatingRatsSeventiesRemorseGarbageLiving ThingsAccumulationIncompetentLife SpanGarbage Cans
Author:Cyril Connolly
Create image

“In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide. But sometimes, and oftenest at midnight, those dark receptacles are flung wide open. In an hour like this, when the mind has a passive sensibility, but no active strength; when the imagination is a mirror, imparting vividness to all ideas, without the power of selecting or controlling them; then pray that your grieves may slumber, and the brotherhood of remorse not break their chain.”

MindHeartMayIdeasSometimesLightCausesHoursImaginationDarkForgetExistenceBreakPrayingConscienceMirrorsDepthActiveWideChainsGrievingPrisonerBuriedBrotherhoodPassiveSensibilityMidnightRemorseTombsSlumberDungeonsVividnessRevelry
Author:Nathaniel Hawthorne
Create image

“It is not the conscience which raises a blush, for a man may sincerely regret some slight fault committed in solitude, or he may suffer the deepest remorse for an undetected crime, but he will not blush... It is not the sense of guilt, but the thought that others think or know us to be guilty which crimsons the face.”

ThinkingKnowsMenMayFacesSufferingCrimeEmotionalRegretSolitudeConscienceRaisesGuiltFaultsCommittedGuiltyRemorseSincerely
Book:The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
Create image