Lost Opportunity Quotes

“Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s what part of it means to be alive. But inside our heads — at least that’s where I imagine it — there’s a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in a while, let fresh air in, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you’ll live for ever in your own private library.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“…I had seen the princess and let her lie there unawakened, because the happily ever after was so damnably much work.”
― Orson Scott Card, Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card

“Mother-Judah trampled on Jehovah’s offer when she betrayed her marital vows. Disappointment is inevitable, when your partner throws away all the beautiful possibilities. For the narcissist, however, they struggle to see life through anyone’s eyes but their own.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Lamentations: how narcissistic leaders torment church and family

“The wind has toppled the telescope
over onto the lawn:
So much for stars.
Your brief shot at the universe, gone.”
― Laura Kasischke, Space, in Chains