 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / British English / December 2004Origin of quote "I'd rather regret having done something than ..."
Does anyone know the origin of this quote (or equiv)? "When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did." It must be much older than H. Jackson Brown, Jr.'s book "Life's Little Instruction Book" 1991. Is it a variant of Tennyson? 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. - from In Memoriam > > > Does anyone know the origin of this quote (or equiv)? > > "When you look back on your life, you'll regret the > things you didn't do more than the ones you did." That is so pedestrian and unremarkable that it is hardly worth remembering. It certainly isn't worth keeping in a quotation file. It's the sort of tripe that should appear over Jack Handley's name. > It must be much older than H. Jackson Brown, Jr.'s > book "Life's Little Instruction Book" 1991. Just the sort of tedious pseudo-philosophical tract I would expect such "deep thoughts" in. If you ever reach total enlightenment while you're drinking a beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose. -- Jack Handley >> Does anyone know the origin of this quote (or equiv)? >> [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > If you ever reach total enlightenment while you're drinking a beer, I > bet it makes beer shoot out your nose. -- Jack Handley It's Jack *Handey,* whose work is always interesting. If I were given the choice between reading something called *Life's Little Instruction Book* and a collection of *Deep Thoughts* by Jack Handey, I'd pick the latter without hesitation. For the spelling of his name, which is often misspelled on the Internet, see the following cover of a book of postcards based upon his work: http://images.amazon.com/images/G/covers/0/83/623/206/0836232062.m.gif  SignatureRaymond S. Wise Minneapolis, Minnesota USA E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com > > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > 'Tis better to have loved and lost > Than never to have loved at all. - from In Memoriam I don't know. But there's also: "Father, what does regret mean?" "Well, son, a funny thing about regret is, that it's always better to regret something you have done, than to regret something you haven't done. And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend, be sure and tell her 'Satan! Satan! Satan!'" -- Butthole Surfers, "Sweat Loaf" SignatureDan Clore My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/ News & Views for Anarchists & Activists: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind. -- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms" > Does anyone know the origin of this quote (or equiv)? > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > It must be much older than H. Jackson Brown, Jr.'s > book "Life's Little Instruction Book" 1991. Various websites attribute the following quote to the syndicated columnist Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986): "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." A search on the Newspaperarchive.com database finds that this quote did indeed appear in Harris' column on Jan. 8, 1951 (syndicated in the Daily Courier of Waterloo, Iowa). > Various websites attribute the following quote to the syndicated > columnist Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986): > > "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for > the things we did not do that is inconsolable." But did he ever write anything worth remembering? At least that's better than the "When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did" that the original poster asked about. As another Harris [1] said to A. J. Balfour, "All the faults of the age come from Christianity and journalism." [1]known as Frank Harris, but really James Thomas Harris. > > Various websites attribute the following quote to the syndicated > > columnist Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986): [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > [1]known as Frank Harris, but really James Thomas Harris. Or says he said. He was an infamous résumé padder. > > > Various websites attribute the following quote to the syndicated > > > columnist Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986): [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Or says he said. He was an infamous résumé padder. Sydney J. Harris wrote a lot of lovely things. I especially liked his column about his "religion" -- something about being a Reformed ________ Druid. But about the original question on this thread, I also recall a rambling Ogden Nash poem about sins of omission and commission which addressed much the same notions. Probably would date from the 1950s or early 1960s. David Loftus |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.