Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.
Julius Cæsar, Act iv. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Whatever sceptic could inquire for,
For every why he had a wherefore.
Hudibras, Pt. I. S. BUTLER.
I was promised on a time
To have reason for my rhyme;
From that time unto this season,
I received nor rhyme nor reason.
Lines on his Promised Pension. E. SPENSER.
REGRET.
For who, alas! has lived,
Nor in the watches of the night recalled
Words he has wished unsaid and deeds undone?
Reflections. S. ROGERS.
Thou wilt lament
Hereafter, when the evil shall be done
And shall admit no cure.
Iliad, Bk. IX. HOMER. Trans. of BRYANT.
The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,
Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows
A harvest of barren regrets.
Lucile, Pt. 1. Canto II. LORD LYTTON (Owen Meredith).
O lost days of delight, that are wasted in doubting and waiting!
O lost hours and days in which we might have been happy!
Tales of a Wayside Inn: The Theologian's Tale. H.W. LONGFELLOW.
Calmly he looked on either Life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear:
From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfied.
Thanked Heaven that he had lived, and that he died.
Epitaph X. A. POPE.