A Literary Prescription for

Regret

For the choice you cannot stop returning to, and the discovery that regret, examined honestly, has something useful to teach you.

Regret tends to be treated as something to avoid or suppress, but recent research suggests it may be one of the most useful emotions available — precisely because it shows you, with great clarity, what you actually value. The books, poems, and words gathered here take regret seriously, not as a verdict on your worth, but as information worth examining.

Books Poetry Quotes & Prose

Books

Books to read for regret

Books that treat regret as something worth examining, not simply avoiding.

The Power of Regret

Daniel H. Pink · 2022

Pink surveyed tens of thousands of people about their regrets and found remarkably consistent patterns — most regret falls into just four categories, and understanding them can clarify what you actually want from the rest of your life. For readers who fear regret as purely negative, Pink reframes it as one of the most useful navigational tools available.

No Regrets Parenting

Dr. Harley A. Rotbart · 2012

Though framed around parenting specifically, Rotbart’s argument — that most adult regret centres on time not spent rather than mistakes made — applies far more broadly. For readers whose regret involves relationships rather than decisions, this reframe toward presence over perfection is genuinely useful.

Tuesdays with Morrie

Mitch Albom · 1997

Albom’s account of his weekly visits with his dying former professor distils a lifetime of wisdom about what actually matters — and what does not turn out to matter nearly as much as we feared while we were busy fearing it. For readers haunted by regret over choices made under different priorities, Morrie’s perspective from the end of life offers genuine, hard-won clarity.

The Midnight Library

Matt Haig · 2020

Haig’s novel allows its protagonist to actually live out the lives she regrets not choosing — and discovers, in each one, a different and equally real set of difficulties. For readers convinced the unchosen path would have been better, Haig’s thought experiment offers a gentle, fictional reality check.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Shelby Van Pelt · 2022

A widow cleaning an aquarium at night, an octopus who has worked out what happened to her son, and thirty years of not knowing. Van Pelt writes about the regret that comes from an unfinished story rather than a wrong decision, and about how late is still worth it. Odd, funny and far more moving than the premise suggests.

Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan · 2021

A coal merchant in 1980s Ireland notices something he could easily walk past, and spends the book deciding whether he can live with walking past it. Keegan writes the particular regret of inaction — the things we did not say, the doors we did not knock on. Barely a hundred pages, and it asks the question that most regret is really about: what kind of person do you want to have been?

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Poems about regret

For when prose is not enough

Poems for the road not taken, and the one you actually walked.

“The Road Not Taken”

Robert Frost, 1916

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Frost’s most famous and most misread poem is actually about the stories we construct after the fact — how the two roads were, by his own description, really about the same, and the difference was largely invented in hindsight. For anyone tormented by what might have been, Frost gently suggests the other road may not have been so different after all.

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“The Layers” (extract)

Stanley Kunitz, 1978

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.

Kunitz looks back over a long life of choices, some better than others, without flinching and without despairing — finding instead a continuous thread of self running through all of it. For readers reviewing their own choices with regret, Kunitz models a way of looking back that does not require self-condemnation. Find it in The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz.

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“After a While”

Veronica A. Shoffstall, 1971

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul,
and you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
and company doesn’t mean security.

Shoffstall’s poem accumulates hard-won wisdom from past mistakes without bitterness — treating each lesson as something gained rather than purely something regretted. For anyone whose regrets have at least taught them something, this poem offers a way to hold both truths.

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Quotes & Prose

Quotes about regret to keep

For the choices you keep returning to, and what they might actually be telling you.

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.

Rosa Parks

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In twenty years, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.

Mark Twain

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Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.

Victoria Holt

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Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are ‘it might have been.’

Kurt Vonnegut

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Regret is not a sentence. It is a signpost, pointing toward what you actually value. Read it, then keep walking.

Georgia Clare

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From Georgia

Pause here, if you need to

A short practice for sitting with regret, whenever you need somewhere to land.

When Life Feels Stuck

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A steadying practice for the fallow stretches, when nothing seems to be moving, and the quiet trust that the unseen work is still being done.

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Letting Go Through Forgiveness

Premium meditation · Georgia Clare

Forgiveness is not about excusing what happened. A layered practice for releasing anger, resentment or regret, whether towards someone else or yourself.

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Letting Go Isn’t Forgetting. It’s Choosing Not to Live There Anymore.

Personal essay by Georgia Clare · The Library

On the quiet difference between forgetting and letting go — permission to set something down for a while.

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Letting Go Of Guilt And Self-Blame

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A gentle space for softening guilt and self-blame, helping you release shame and reconnect with your own worth.

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Overthinking Relief

Premium meditation · Georgia Clare

A gentle mindfulness meditation to step out of the spiral of overthinking, settling looping thoughts in stages through grounding visualisation and breathwork, and arriving somewhere quieter.

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The Inner Peace Toolkit

Digital Self-Care Toolkit · Georgia Clare

2 guided meditations, an Inner Peace Journal, an affirmations eBook, 10 printable affirmation prints and 10 calming phone wallpapers — small daily practices to come back to whenever you need to slow down and reconnect with yourself.

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Questions people ask

Reading for Regret

Where do I begin with regret?

If you only read one thing, begin with The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink. Pink surveyed tens of thousands of people about their regrets and found remarkably consistent patterns — most regret falls into just four categories… And if a whole book feels like too much today, scroll to the poems below — “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost can be read in a minute and asks nothing of you.

What can I read about regret in five minutes?

Try “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, further down the page. A poem asks far less of you than a chapter does. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is the shortest book listed above, and bears rereading. Read a few lines, put it down, come back another day. That counts.

What are some good quotes about regret?

Quotes about regret worth keeping include “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” (Rosa Parks), “In twenty years, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones…” (Mark Twain) and “Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” (Victoria Holt). You’ll find these and more in the quotes section above.

What can reading give me when I’m struggling with regret?

Company, mostly — and the strange relief of recognition. The right words won’t erase regret, but they can hold it with you for a while, name what you couldn’t, and remind you that you’re in good company, even at your lowest.