REGRETS
REGRETS - 1
“Escape for your life! Do not look behind you and do not stand still in any part of the district! Escape to the mountainous region so that you may not be swept away! But Lot’s wife, who was behind him, began to look back, and she became a pillar of salt.” – Written by Moses – Gen. 19:17, 26 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do. – Voltaire
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou
“Forgive me for everything I’ve done wrong. I don’t have time to go through it because I am going to die.” – Lori Lightner – on Flight 1549 crashing into the Hudson River
OOPS! – Everyone
“When happily ever after fails/ and we’ve been poisoned by the fairy tales, / the lawyers dwell on small details, / since Daddy had to fly.” – Don Henley – THE END OF INNOCENCE – Don Henley / Bruce Hornsby – 1989
Forgiveness is love practiced among people who love poorly. It sets us free without wanting anything in return. – Henry Nouwen (Writer, priest)
Kind words do not cost much. They never blister our tongue or lips. They make others good-natured. They also produce their own image on men’s souls—and a beautiful image it is. – Blaise Pascal
Hindsight is a 20/20 exact science. – Gary Pulliam (just kidding) – Anonymous
I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. – Gilda Radner (Comedian, actress)
Beside the act of saving someone’s life, perhaps the greatest act in the human experience is the personal sacrifice we make when we forgive someone. – Gary Pulliam
It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance. – Bette Midler
I’ve learned that you should never say “no” to a gift from a child. – Andy Rooney
When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free. –Catherine Ponder (Religious scholar/writer)
It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone. – Marilyn Monroe
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. – Confucius
To believe in something and not live it is dishonest. – Mohandas Gandhi
REGRETS - 2
“For I am well aware of my trangressions, and my sin is constantly in front of me.” – King David – Ps. 51:4 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
Glance into the rearview mirror (past mistakes) but don’t gaze into it or you will lose sight of the future. – Unknown
He who can’t forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass. – George Herbert (Poet)
If I had my life to live over, I would have listened to my grandfather ramble on about his youth. – Erma Bombeck
You ain’t goin’ nowhere son. You oughta go on back to drivin’ a truck in Memphis. – Jim Denny of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville to Elvis Presley in 1954 after his audition.
Get some facts first. You can distrust them later. – Mark Twain
You must floss your teeth, if you want to keep them. You must study the Bible with your children, if you want to keep them. – A good friend)
Everybody wants to do something to help, but nobody wants to be first. – Pearl Bailey
“Roses are red and violets are purple / Sugar is sweet and so’s maple surple / Well, I’m the seventh out of seven sons / My pappy’s a pistol, I’m a son-of-a-gun. / Dang me, dang me / They oughta take a rope and hang me / High from the highest tree, / Woman, would you weep for me?” – Roger Miller – DANG ME – Roger Miller – 1964
Opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss. – Andy Rooney
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. – Abraham Lincoln
“The wolves became lambs. Such transformations occur in the last agonies of life. However different and imperfect the various sketches of religion are, even when belief is shapeless—there is a trembling of the soul.” – Victor Hugo – THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
The greatest griefs are the ones we cause ourselves. – Sophocles
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. – Maya Angelou
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. – Larry the Cable Guy
‘They’ told us that, if we’d just be more generous with poor folks, there’d be no motive for stealing anymore. So we gave everyone a guaranteed income—and robbery, burglary, larceny and auto theft are running 15% ahead of a year ago. – Paul Harvey
Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man. – Thomas Carlyle
REGRETS - 3
“My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness. I am distressed and extremely downcast; I walk around sad all day long.” – King David – Ps.38: 5, 6 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument. – Voltaire
We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. – Decca Recording Company in rejecting a recording contact with the Beatles.
One should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them. – Andy Rooney
There is nothing more miserable in the world than to arrive in Paradise and look like your passport photo. – Erma Bombeck
It’s better to give children rules to break rather than no rules at all. – Tipper Gore
Success means controlling your own time. If you gain control over 60% of the time in your life, you are really successful. Time is the most expensive currency, but once you spend it, it’s gone. – Rod Steiger
Procrastination is like a credit card. It’s a lot of fun until you get the bill. – Chris Parker - (New Zealand comedian)
“Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t. / You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t. / Here in the dark, in these final hours, / I will lay down my heart, and I’ll feel the power, / But you won’t, no you won’t. / Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t.” – Bonnie Raitt – I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME – Mike Reid & Allen Shamblin – 1991
What’s done to children they will do to society. – Dr. Karl Meninger
Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone. – G. B. Stern (Female literary critic)
Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is. – George Carlin
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wished we didn’t. – Erica Jong
Infrequent verbal expressions of love are like trying to fit old shoes on a teenager—they just don’t fit. You can never go back. – Leo Buscaglia –LOVE
Most people want to be delivered from temptation, but would like to keep in touch.– Robert Orien (Journalist)
Many of life’s failures belong to people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison
REGRETS - 4
“But Jesus said to him: Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss?” - Jesus to Judas - writer Physician Luke -- Luke 22:48 - HOLY SCRIPTURES
You should enjoy today while it is here, because someday, today will be a long time ago. – Ziggy
Drive carefully. We should fasten our seat belts so we won’t have to walk back to the scene of the accident. – Ira Hayes
The only way you can control how you are seen is by being honest all the time. –Tom Hanks
“And add my regrets / to the tears in the rain / for that’s what the color / of roses contain. / Only the ones who believe / ever see what they dream, / ever dream, / ever dream what comes true.” – Beth Nielsen-Chapman – THE COLOR OF ROSES – Beth Nielsen-Chapman – 1997
Talk is not wasted affection. Affection is never wasted. – Henry W. Longfellow
You are only young once but you can be immature for a lifetime. – Gary Pulliam
Getting angry can be like getting into a wonderfully responsive sports car, gunning the moter, taking off at high speed, and then discovering the brakes are out of order. – Maggie Scaff
It is far easier to forgive an enemy after you have gotten even with them. – Olin Miller (Author)
“No matter how close to yours another’s steps have grown, in the end there’s the dance you will do alone.” – Jackson Browne – THE DANCE
I buy women shoes, and then they use them to walk away from me. – Mickey Rooney
Life is full of misery, loneliness and suffering—and it’s all over much too soon. – Woody Allen
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. – Warren Buffett.
Don’t squat with your spurs on. – Will Rogers
Death is a challenge. It tells you not to waste time. It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other. – Leo Buscaglia
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. – Garth Brooks
Guilt—the gift that keeps on giving. – Erma Bombeck
Grief is an examination. There is no judge so searching as conscience conducting its own trial. – Victor Hugo – THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. – Will Rogers
REGRETS - 5
“Purify me from my sin with hyssop, so that I will be clean; Wash me, so that I will be whiter than snow.” – King David – Ps. 51:7 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
If you’re gonna do something tonight you’ll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late.– Henny Youngman
To be angry is easy, but to be angry with the right man and at the right time and in the right manner, that is not easy. – Aristotle
God will help you with the high cost of living—but He will not help you with the cost of living high. – Doug Larsen (Columnist)
Liquor prohibition led to the rise of organized crime in America, and drug prohibition led to the rise of gang problems we have. – Drew Carey
While we have the gift of life, it seems that the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die—whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness. – Gilda Radner
Everything that can be invented has been invented. – Charles H. Duel – Retiring Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office in 1899.
People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient—then repent. – Bob Dylan
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light. – Socrates
Whatever begins in anger ends in shame. – Winston Churchill
Remember, behind every cynic is a romantic, and probably an injured one. – Glenn Beck (Radio personality)
“But if my silence made you leave / Then that would be my first mistake / So I will share this room with you / And you can have this heart to break. / And this is why my eyes are closed / It’s just as well for all I’ve seen / And so it goes, / and so it goes / And you’re the only one who knows.” – Billy Joel – AND SO IT GOES – 1989
I’ve learned that being kind is more important than being right. – Andy Rooney Rooney
Don’t wait until you’re too old or sick to have time to repent! – Gary Pulliam
I have been all things unholy. If God works through me, he can work through anyone. – Francis of Assisi
You can’t change the past but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future. – Right on
Often, the roles I’m offered in England are melancholic women who are filled with regret for the past, regret for their fading beauty. – Kristin Scott Thomas
REGRETS - 6
“For even if I saddened you by my letter, I do not regret it. Even if I did first regret it (seeing that the letter saddened you, though only for a little while), now I rejoice, not because you were just saddened, but because you were saddened into repenting. For you were saddened in a Godly way, so that you suffered no harm because of us.” – Apostle Paul – 2 Cor. 7:8, 9 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. – Abraham Lincoln
German’s themselves are grappling with a conflict about this among their historians—how to fit this unique event into German history, into the German and European imagination. – Thomas Keneally (on the Holocaust) – Author – SCHLINDLER’S LIST
I’ve learned that when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you. – Andy Rooney
Hindsight is always 20-20. – Billy Wilder (Film director)
The worst thing that can happen to a person is not to die young. The worst thing is to live a long active life, only to be separated eternally from God. – Someone very wise
Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakens bitter consciousness during adversity. – Rousseau
The bitterest tears shed over graves are the words left unsaid and the deeds left undone. – Harriet Beecher Stowe
A man should never be shamed to say that he has been wrong, which is but saying in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. – Alexander Pope
Well, excuuuuuse me! – Steve Martin
“I’ve been trying to get down / to the heart of the matter / but my will gets weak / and my thoughts seem to scatter, / but I think it’s about forgiveness /…forgiveness, / even if, even if, you don’t love me anymore.” – Don Henley – THE HEART OF THE MATTER – 1989
He who hesitates is not necessarily lost, but he may not be able to get another chance to get off the freeway for a while. – The story of my life
If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles. – John Ruskin
The underlying responsibility of the Holocaust lies not with Europe as Thomas Kennealy asserts, it lies with the churches—yes, organized religion—because they failed teach and to act on the truth. They turned their backs on what was really happening. They could have helped prevent it in the first place. – Gary Pulliam (Writer) - ESSAY ON THE FOLLY OF WAR
Apologizing ahead of time can be risky. – Unknown
And the trouble is, if you don’t risk everything, you risk even more. – Erica Jong
REGRETS - 7
“But I pummel my body and lead it as a slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.” – Apostle Paul – 1 Cor. 9:27 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
Some of us think holding on makes us stronger; but sometimes it is letting go. – Hermann Hesse (German / Swiss poet)
“I am peaches in September / and corn from a roadside stall / I’m the languages of the natives, /I’m a cadence and a drawl / I’m the pines behind the graveyard, / and the cool beneath their shade / where the boys have left their beer cans / I’m the weeds between graves / I am a town.” – Mary Chapin Carpenter – I AM A TOWN– 1992
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today because of its strength. – Corrie Ten Boom (Female Dutch writer)
A person who’s never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt. – G. K. Chesterton (British writer and philosopher)
Nothing adds insult to injury more than an insincere apology. – Gary Pulliam
I would rather repeat the things I’ve done than the things I haven’t. – Lucille Ball
Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point. – C.S. Lewis
My one regret in life is that I’m not somebody else. – Woody Allen
Right actions in the future are the best apology for bad actions in the past. – Tryon Edwards - American theologian)
Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. – Mary Tyler Moore
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful that a life spent doing nothing. – George Bernard Shaw
Never look back unless you’re planning to go that way. – Henry David Thoreau
Faith means living with uncertainty, feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark. – Dan Millnan (American author)
Let the dead PAST bury its dead. – Henry W. Longfellow
When one door closes, another opens. Usually a refridgerator. – Bonnie McFarland (Canadian comedian)
‘They’ insisted that our schools must boot God out, and rely on ‘Junior’s’ intelligence. So we graduated a generation of juniors with refined intellects and undisciplined emotions—so school age suicides soared 92% in the last two years! – Paul Harvey
REGRETS - 8
Sometimes we are judged by our good intentions, but we are really judged by our last bad act. – Michael Josephson (Law professor)
