There are millions of people living Thoreau's life of quiet desperation, and they do not have the language to escape from that desperation.

To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible - that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins.

Regret is a short, evocative and achingly beautiful word: an elegy to lost possibilities even in its brief annunciation.

David Whyte Quotes