And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

I ran over some dog poop on my drive home last night. But I didn’t feel bad, because I didn’t vote for that particular politician.

While I meditate on the gulf towards which I travelled, and reflect on my youthful disobedience, for these things I weep, mine eye runneth down with water.

So I make no effort to hide my pain. I don’t ever put it all on display like this—but for today and all the rest of the days of the trial, I must. My every...

On the throne, one has many worries; and remorse is the one that weighs the least.

My brother trolled recovery and support groups, searching for women with dependency issues, the way I frequented bookstores with the hope of finding a well-adjusted, intelligent woman. Between us, his record was more stellar, his...

Every self-respecting act of persuasion must find appeal to curiosity, then to vanity, and lastly to kindness or remorse. Isabella looked down and slowly nodded.

After each dream, Frankie woke with a start, soaked in tears. But she found no relief in the peaceful silence of her room, because there everything was real. And the guilt was too immense to...

You took a life and the theft went unpunished. God didn’t strike you down. The sky didn’t fall. The morning after, you turned on the faucet and water still came out… It was still good...

I think there are lovely sunsets in hell—and that’s where my desire for you is sending me

Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time....

The graces are restless today. They pweet and muss, shuddering their wings so that the feathers stick out at defensive angles. I feel that restlessness too. When the sea is fractious like this – when...

But sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. […] True sorrow is as rare as true love.

the shooting and killing weren’t as black-and-white as most people think. The actions live in that hazy area of blown-apart stone walls and hesitations. Sometimes I shot when I shouldn’t have; other times I didn’t...

The universe does not work in phrases; don’t focus on the commas; just wait for the full stop.

His remorse was purely physical. Only his body, strained nerves, and cowering flesh were afraid of the drowned man. Conscience played no part in his terrors, and he had not the slightest regret about killing...

When we are mired in the relative world, never lifting our gaze to the mystery, our life is stunted, incomplete; we are filled with yearning for that paradise that is lost when, as young children,...

Every morning I wake up, I feel guilty; every breath of borrowed time is heavy in my chest.”-Lo-The Wild Hunt

Be quiet! Anyone can spit in my face, and call me a criminal and a prostitute. But no one has the right to judge my remorse.

…I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. […] It is important in life to conclude things properly. Only then...

now. ” She did not free Leonard yet, and the knife plunged deeper into his heart as the train drew up at Hilton. But remorse had become beautiful.

I thought about the days i had handed over to a bottle..the nights i can’t remember..the mornings i slept thru..all the time spent running from myself.

I wander cowboy sidewalks of wood, wearing a too-small hat, filled with remorse for the many lives I failed to lead.

Yet each man kills the thing he lovesBy each let this be heardSome do it with a bitter lookSome with a flattering wordThe coward does it with a kissThe brave man with a sword

Looking back, my greatest regret is not that I didn’t love them enough (to the brink of insanity and back again), but that I couldn’t save them from themselves.

You can embark on new and steeper versions of your old sin, you know, and cry tears doing it that are genuine as any.

Humility is the only thing that can restore a relationship, when respect has been lost.

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...

Apologizing is different from begging, it doesn’t change your status, go ahead and get on your knees, spill tears if you got it, for the person you offended, if at all you had a place...

Penance is a sacrifice, a voluntary punishment to show remorse for a sin. The more grievous the sin, the greater the self-inflicted suffering. For some, the ultimate penance is death. But for others, it simply...

Truly there are different kinds of pain. But the most agonizing is the pain of regret, for which there is no lasting relief and no remedy.

Oh Lestat, you deserved everything that’s ever happened to you. You better not die. You might actually go to hell.

Mother’s intentions were always sound, never muddy; I don’t imagine that she troubled herself to feel very guilty. But the Rev. Mr. Merrill was a man who took to wallowing in guilt; his remorse, after...

One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.

Everything since the beginning of time was working together to make my happiness possible: and then you. You walked into the audiovisual lab in your flannel shirt…and you fucked it up! You fucked everything up!...

The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in the excess of grief.

Sometimes, I’m not sure she has the capability for remorse.

Cosette, do you hear? he has come to that! he asks my forgiveness! And do you know what he has done for me, Cosette? He has saved my life. He has done more–he has given...

The memory of the dead is indeed a good remorse. (Le souvenir des morts – Est bien un bon remords)

You have to understand that only the very worst end up here: the ones whose anger made them kill, and who felt no sorrow or guilt after the act; those so obsessed with themselves that...

Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.

I did not want to be taken for a fool – the typical French reason for performing the worst of deeds without remorse.

Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face.

When such as I cast out remorseSo great a sweetness flows into the breastWe must laugh and we must sing,We are blest by everything,Everything we look upon is blest.

Death abides by no one’s rules…it takes what pleases it without consciousness to its decisions. It destroys what it will. It took the pieces of perfection I once knew and shattered them. Now what remains...

Everytime I hold you is the last time I hold you, I’ve known that since the very first time.

I have received the pilgrim—a disguised deity, as I verily believe. Already it has done me good: my heart was a sort of charnel; it will now be a shrine.

It is the bungled crime that brings remorse.

Remorse shows the difference between a cruel person and one that is not.

Remorse is the pain of sin.