158 Quotes About Remorse

It's difficult the first time you have to get close to kill another. You see their eyes, see the light in it go out. Even a troll's eyes have that light. I'd be worried if you didn't feel something after that. I don't like hunting with a man who's a killer without that feeling.

Imagine the thoughts of serial killer and mutilator Jeffrey Dahmer when he ended up in prison. He felt great remorse, which he confessed on several occasions. He had ruined his life beyond repair. If Wisconsin had the death penalty, he would have earned it. Who could he turn to except God? Certainly no human would hear the cries of his heart and believe the depth of his sorrow. Only God could.

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

Celui qui, jadis, détruisit dans l'insouciance de la jeunesse tant et tant de merveilles donnerait tellement aujourd'hui pour retrouver quelques-uns seulement de ces objets merveilleux qui portaient notre histoire.

If there is any fruitless mental torment which is greater than that of jealousy it is perhaps remorse. Even the pains of loss may be less searching; and often of course these agonies combine, as now they did for me. I say remorse not repentance. I doubt if I have ever experienced repentance in a pure form; perhaps it does not exist in a pure form. Remorse contains guilt, but helpless hopeless guilt which knows of no cure for the painful bite.

...burying themselves in his arm was more about feeling his love in the confusion, in the difficulty, than it was about having moved past it.

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

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

I need to confront my loss, not run away from it. I wanted to wade in with my eyes open and all my senses alert. I wanted to register everything, from the giant waves of sorrow to the inkiest ripples of remorse. I didn't want to miss any of it.