Charles Van Doren Quotes

You can't take back an act you were able to think.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions.

There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance.

What's done can't be undone.

Even God cannot change the past.

Avoid what will require an apology.

I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and the American people.

I wrote an apology for the harm I'd caused, but I also knew that an apology could never undo any of it.

I can only say sorry for the past. I can't change it.

The past can never be erased. It is always going to be there.

What's said is said and goes upon its way Like it or not, repent it as you may.

Do your duty today and repent tomorrow.

Perhaps this is just punishment for those who have been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone.

What is done cannot be now amended.

Thoughts can be revised. Deeds cannot.

We cannot erase what has been done. We can apologize for it. We can express our outrage. We can say to the American people and to the people of the world, this is not our way and we do not condone it, but we cannot change it and we cannot erase it.

There is no turning back.

I deeply regret any harm, or any perceived harm, that I may have done to anyone by any behaviour of mine.

True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.

I feel like if you've done something wrong, then you should keep on apologizing to that person.

Sadly, we do a much better job of making people feel guilty than we do of delivering them from the guilt we create. We need to confess this and change our ways.

Griffin Bell later apologized to me for that decision.

There's nothing half so real in life as the things you've done... inexorably, unalterably done.

The moving finger writes, and having written moves on. Nor all thy piety nor all thy wit, can cancel half a line of it.