Regret and Guilt

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on.

So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what’s past; avoid what is to come.

I am falser than vows made in wine.

O! I am Fortune’s fool.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; For now hath time made me his numbering clock: My thoughts are minutes.

My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain.

I’ll burn my books!

Ah God! Had I but studied In the days of my foolish youth. 1

Unknowe, unkist, and lost, that is unsought.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.

Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.

There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?

Men of ill judgment ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.

Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.

Bad men are full of repentance.

Therein lies the defect of revenge: it's all in the anticipation; the thing itself is a pain, not a pleasure; at least the pain is the biggest end of it.

We regret the things we don't do more than the things we do.

I have spent most of my life worrying about things that have never happened.