"If I could undo everything," Tony said, "I would never have gone to that party. I was an idiot, Kelly, and it cost me the love of my life."

Nothing is so often and so irrevocably missed as the opportunity which crops up daily.

Tessa was convinced that it was a lie, and also that everything she had done in her life, telling herself that it was for the best, had been no more than blind selfishness, generating confusion and...

It would be convenient if one could redesign the past, change a few things here and there, like certain acts of outrageous stupidity, but if one could do that, the past would always be in motion. It...

More tears rushed from the depths of her tortured soul. ... The losses piled up.

It's always the idle habits you acquire which you will regret. Father said that. That Christ was not crucified: he was worn away by a minute clicking of little wheels. That had no sister.

It's unfair.As a rule, life is unfair, I said.Yeah, but I think I did say some awful things.To Dick?Yeah.I pulled the car over to the shoulder of the road and turned off the ignition. That's just...

I owed the greater apology, but at the same time I knew that was done was done, that no matter what I said now I would never be able to make it right.

The soft strings of the lute rippled with memories, and the maid's lilting voice made Mary sigh as she closed her eyes. She fell asleep filled with sadness, but without regret.

The trick, it seems to me, is to stave off regret. That's what the whole thing is about. And we can't stave it off forever, because it is impossible not to make the mistakes that let regret in, but...

Over the last couple of years, the photos of me when I was a kid... well, they've started to give me a little pang or something - not unhappiness, exactly, but some kind of quiet, deep regret... I...

In my dream, people apologized for things that were about to happen, and lit candles by inhaling.

you can't change the past,Aunt Lou used to say.Oh, but I wanted to;that was the one thing I really wanted to do

I didn't want to hurt him!" Ender cried. "Why didn't he just leave me alone!

Sometimes people get angry and do things they shouldn't. Things they regret.

There is nothing worse than being struck by regret while you have faith