A Quote by H. L. Mencken

Remorse - Regret that one waited so long to do it.

H. L. Mencken

Quote Topics

Long Regret Remorse Waited

Quote Author

H. L. Mencken
American - Writer
September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956

Are people crazy? People waited all their lives. They waited to live, they waited to die. They waited in line to buy toilet paper. They waited in line for money. And if they didn't have any money they waited in longer lines. You waited to go to sleep and then you waited to awaken. You waited to get married and you waited to get divorced. You waited for it to rain, you waited for it to stop. You waited to eat and then you waited to eat again. You waited in a shrink's office with a bunch of psychos and you wondered if you were one.

Charles Bukowski

Guilt at least has a purpose; it tells us we've violated some ethical code. Ditto for remorse. Those feelings are educational; they manufacture wisdom. But regret-regret is useless.

Daniel Smith

True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive.

Mignon McLaughlin

The critical question about regret is whether experience led to growth and new learning. Some people seem to keep on making the same mistakes, while others at least make new ones. Regret and remorse can be either paralyzing or inspiring. [p. 199]

Mary Catherine Bateson

Remorse.-- Never yield to remorse, but at once tell yourself: remorse would simply mean adding to the first act of stupidity a second.

Friedrich Nietzsche

I take my chances. I can't cling to remorse or regret.

Mary Chapin Carpenter

My tidiness, and my untidiness, are full of regret and remorse and complex feelings.

Natalia Ginzburg

If you did something in 1975 that you deeply regret and that you now can recognize as having been profoundly irresponsible, for example, the only way to be lifted out of deep regret and the pain over it is through atonement - through the kind of remorse that leads to genuine atonement, the making of amends, and forgiveness of self and others.

Marianne Williamson

I should have got a better deal in my career, but everything has its time. You can't rush things, feel remorse or regret.

Chunky Pandey

Regret or remorse of the wrong we have done should be in a positive spirit of changing, turning towards God with humility.

Radhanath Swami

...conscience looks backwards and judges past actions, inducing that kind of dissatisfaction, which if weak we call regret, and if severe remorse.

Charles Darwin

I regret that I was never an athlete. I regret there isn't time in life. I regret that so many of my friends have died. I regret that I was not brave at certain times in my life. I regret that I'm not beautiful. I regret that my conversation is largely with myself. I'm not part of the conversation of the world.

Richard Rodriguez

I am living my real life, this is it. Now is now, and if I waited to be happier, waited to have fun, waited to do the things that I know I ought to do, I might never get the chance.

Gretchen Rubin

Rejoicing is the essence of genuine worship. A sad face (apart from remorse for sin or regret concerning the pain of others) is an affront to a gracious and generous God.