Missed Chance Quotes

“Her dad shows up, and instead of getting mad at Denise, he wraps his arm around her and helps her to his car like she's crippled. I could've crippled her. Missed my chance.”
― Darynda Jones, Brighter Than the Sun

“Beyond her declaration of love she could not see. But as she rehearsed the intensity of her passion she thought that he must, when the time came, respond. The desire to, at the right time, tell him became, as the years moved forward toward that time, increasingly painful, like a poisoned wound that must heal itself by breaking open. She now thought in anguish of the times, the recent times, when she could have told him, and had been afraid to, and had clumsily withdrawn, when she could have attracted him and drawn his attention to her. When she had watched over him when he was sleeping in the sedan-chair and could have wakened him with a kiss. If only she had let him know, then she could more easily have borne his not preferring her. He was ready to fall in love — and if he had known — he must have loved her — if he had known how much she loved him. The pain of this loss burnt her in every waking moment, that awful 'if only'. She had lost him, and lost him through her own fault. There were no more pleasures now in life.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Green Knight

“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

“I have squandered in one unintended jerk the string of pearls that was handed to me. And each pearl is lost in a dark corner that I knew not existed.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, Game of Big Numbers

“All too often missed opportunities are in plain sight.”
― Germany Kent