11 Harry Potter Quotes About Regret

This past week I've kept a casual diary of my regrets: I regret ordering with halloumi with my falafel this afternoon (I'm still stuffed); I regret not starting this article over the weekend; I regret not sending my mom's birthday card earlier; I regret watching Gone Girl ; I regret buying the cheap olive oil; I regret taking my favorite scarf to a smoky bar; I regret missing another Easter with my family because I live so far away.

After scrutinizing this far-from-scientific survey of my own personal regrets, I've come to a realization: regret is tough to cope with. Don't get me wrong, I've had worse — off the very top of my head I can assure you that my recent brushes with grief, loss, despair, and embarrassment have packed more of a punch than any of the regrets I've amassed this week. And yet, like the falafel that is still kicking around in my gut, those pesky regrets remain. So, I'm self-medicating, and I'm here to share the good stuff with each and every one of you.

Before you dive right in, I do want warn you that this particular remedy is highly addictive, but if you can stomach it, these 11 Harry Potter quotations are the closest I've come to a cure for regret. After all, if Dumbledore, Hagrid, Hermione, and Harry can cope with regret, than surely you and I can too.

1. "Can you forgive me for not trusting you? For not telling you? ... I only feared that you would fail as I had failed. I only dreaded that you would make my mistakes."

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2. "No good sittin' worryin' abou' it," he said. "What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does."

— Rubeus Hagrid, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

3. "As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all — the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

4. "Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living and above all, those who live without love."

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

5. "The best of us must sometimes eat our words."

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

6. "Oh, I had a few scruples. I assuaged my conscience with empty words. It would all be for the greater good, and any harm done would be repaid a hundredfold in benefits for wizards."

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

7. "You have never treated Harry as a son. He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands."

— Albus Dumbledore Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

8. "I was left to learn to live with my guilt and my terrible grief, the price of my shame."

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

9. "I had proven, as a very young man, that power was my weakness and my temptation."

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

10. "You come back after weeks — weeks — and you think it's all going to be all right if you just say sorry?"

— Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

11. "Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?...Next time there's a ball ask me before someone else does and not a a last resort"

— Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Image: Warner Bros.; Giphy (11)