Looking Back Quotes

“I hurt myself deeply, though at the time I had no idea how deeply. I should have learned many things from that experience, but when I look back on it, all I gained was one single, undeniable fact. That ultimately I am a person who can do evil. I never consciously tried to hurt anyone, yet good intentions notwithstanding, when necessity demanded, I could become completely self-centred, even cruel. I was the kind of person who could, using some plausible excuse, inflict on a person I cared for a wound that would never heal.”
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

“People will walk in and walk out of your life, but the one whose footstep made a long lasting impression is the one you should never allow to walk out.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“We’re so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks—we’re involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don’t get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want? Is something missing?”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

“If I had done this, if I had said that, in the end you are always more tormented by what you didn't do than what you did, actions already performed can always be rationalized in time, the neglected deed might have changed the world.”
― Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room

“Remorse is a terrible thing to bear, Pam, one of the worst of all punishments in this life. To wish undone something you have done, to wish you could look back on kindness to someone you love, instead of on unkindness - that is a very terrible thing.”
― Enid Blyton, House at the Corner

“I don't know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination.”
― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

“بحثتُ عنكَ طويلاً...
تحت عجلات السيّارات؛
في الأزقَّة؛
فوق الأرصفة؛
في وجوه الغرباء؛
بينَ حقائب الراحلين؛
وألصقتُ صورتكَ في ظهري من الخلف:
(هذا الذي يدفعني إلى جنون مُميت دلُّوه إلى وجهي)”
― Nour Albawardi, النصف المضيء من الباب الموارب

“The past may or may not be a foreign country. It may morph or lie still, but its capital is always Regret, and what flushes through it is the grand canal of unfledged desires that feed into an archipelago of tiny might-have-beens that never really happened but aren't unreal for not happening and might still happen though we fear they never will. And I thought of Ole Brit holding back so much, as we all do when we look back to see that the roads we've left behind or not taken have all but vanished. Regret is how we hope to back into our real lives once we find the will, the blind drive and courage, to trade in the life we're given for the life that bears our name and ours only. Regret is how we look forward to things we've long lost yet never really had. Regret is hope without conviction, I said. We're torn between regret, which is the price to pay for things not done, and remorse, which is the cost for having done them. Between one and the other, time plays all its cozy little tricks.”
― André Aciman, Enigma Variations

“The trouble with ‘if only’ is that it doesn’t change anything. It keeps the person facing the wrong way – backward instead of forward. It wastes time. In the end, if you let it become a habit, it can become a real roadblock – an excuse for not trying anymore.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“What if I can't turn my head? I can look in any direction by turning my wheelchair, and I choose to look back. Rodman to the contrary notwithstanding, that is the only direction we can learn from.”
― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

“Looking back, I have come to realize that the gang lifestyle back then—the fame, the respect, and the recognition—was stronger and powerful than any drug. We were serious with what we were dealing with. It was like a do or die situation. Shelton ‘Apples’ Burrows reform gang leader”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“For so many lifetimes, he lived in a state of perpetual regret, returning obsessively and destructively to better times, to moments he wished he could change. Most of those lives he lived staring into the rearview mirror.”
― Blake Crouch, Recursion

“We Close In Fifteen Minutes by Stewart Stafford

Found myself the only taker,
Of a minefield guided tour,
Through no man's land life,
Every exit is now invisible.

Stardom magnified my flaws,
A broken man lost in a maze,
A deadly structure's hostage,
A hermit in denial's labyrinth.

Glimpse dwindling fragments,
In the looking glass of hubris,
Flounder in glossy quicksand,
The solutions devoured whole.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Wie verändert blickt sie mich jetzt an, diese vergangene Zeit!”
― Adelbert von Chamissoo

“I am constantly reflecting back on how I’ve done things and how those things have turned out. I like to think about the cause and effect of my decisions and the way that I have lived. Therefore, I am constantly assessing and evolving. It has been important to look back and say, “This caused that, so don’t do that again.” Or, “This is helping move you forward in a nice trajectory; keep that up.”
― Eric Overby

“You'll discover for yourself soon enough the things that devastate us most in the moment are always the things we look back on with such gratitude.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“Memories have their purpose, and nostalgia is not a danger in small doses. It can be good to remember what has made us who we are, to reflect on what has made us stronger.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“im always thinking of going back. when lots wife looke dover her shoulder, she turned into a pillar of salt. pillars hold things up, and salt keeps things clean, but its a poor exchange for losing your self. people do go back, but they dont survive, because two realities are claiming them at the same time. such things are too much. you can salt your heart, or kill your heart, or you can choose between the two realities. there is much pain here. some people thing you can have your cake and eat it. the cake goes mouldy and they choke on whats left.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

“Each step we take back, is a moment in future we are losing.”
― Joan Ambu

“Lost are the seekers of miracles. Only in the end, in the telling and re-telling of the tale, is the miracle seen - Life.”
― Stewart Stafford

“In Faceless Time by Stewart Stafford

Her stare burned into me,
In full view, a naked look,
Hubbub quietened down,
Inaudible to the two of us.

Beckoning, a ripened vine,
Ingénue cameo of her face,
I, a happy gatecrasher to life,
Tiptoed in the requited chase.

Her looks carry with me now,
Resplendent in aged raiment,
Ages after my gaze fell on her,
A souvenir sheltered radiant.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Saccharine daydreams
Of salad days and bursting seams.
Living life so fully,
Death has nothing to take.
What does it take to be a martyr in this place?”
― Christopher Hantman, What Does It Take To Be A Martyr In This Place? A Collection of Poems on Grief and Loss.

“Looking Back Dear Lord,

For every issue that I regret there’s hundreds I’m proud of. The hand full of things I wish I could change there’s a ton of things I wouldn’t. Many days, I felt pain in my heart, but thousand days I felt love. Every day of weakness was met with years of strength. Thank you Dear Jesus for always being there. Amen.”
― Ron Baratono

“Your life is like a canvas, and when you die, you have to sign the bottom corner. Will you be happy with what the painting looks like?”
― Lizabeth Zindel, Girl of the Moment

“The Reaping by Stewart Stafford

Paint a nostalgic landscape today,
A harvest gifted once in this way,
Stranger's yields come to pass,
Only that season's memory lasts.

A fallow field to revisit in time,
Golden reaping of a private mind,
As gleaners, newcomers gather,
Reminiscence thickens to slather.

As the body grows old like the land,
With crop circles on backs of hands,
In solstice, your seed does replenish,
Past where scars of life can blemish.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“A fraction of a moment could mean anything — death, love, success. You find meaning in moments as the next moment is not yet found. When it’s found, it could be everything or nothing at all.”
― Dominic Riccitello

“Some things are exactly how we leave them. Years go by and we long, passion builds, loss extends and we miss forbidden memories. Every once in awhile I long for what used to be instead of what is. I remember how I left it, last words said, how your voice echoes. It’s not sadness. It’s not quite happiness. It was bittersweet. Things were bittersweet. I still think of it quite often and wonder if the memories for you ever soften.”
― Dominic Riccitello

“As time moves, you realize every single relationship you’ve had, regardless of the length, is a bittersweet reality and a memory gained.”
― Dominic Riccitello

“I always cherish moments in the aftermath, never truly understanding their impact twined with my life experience in that very second. And to me, that is a beautiful realization.”
― Dominic Riccitello

“Regret is not an enemy but a compass.”
― Joshua Krook