What Could Have Been Quotes

“There's that "margin of error" that you allow to exist in your mind, you want to give everything the benefit of the doubt, you want to look at another person and say "maybe we could be friends" and that's all well at first, but then you have to reach that point in your life, wherein you don't have time to live on the margins of error, and you have to say, "so what if there is a margin of error that exists? I don't think that this person and I could walk down the same path together, because she's like that, and I'm like this; I must relieve myself of fearing the error, the 'what could have been'." You know, sometimes we can be so afraid of the "what could have been" that we overlook the right here and now! And end up forsaking who we are and what makes us happy, and what we want and don't want! There is an error that takes place; when living too much for the "what could have been." There comes a time when you must give YOURSELF the benefit of the doubt! Know thyself. Color-in those margins of error with your favorite color; make them your own, make them work for you, let them be in your favor!”
― C. JoyBell C.

“You can lament over what could have been, or you can do something bold; use that energy to create an enviable future. It is up to you.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year

“The sketchbook was still open on the table and I rushed to it.
It was the one that Edward used over the summer of 1862. I had sat beside him while he made those very lines on that piece of cotton paper: studies for the painting he had planned, something he had been thinking about for years. On the following pages, I knew, were his sketches of the clearing in the woods and the fairy mound and a stone croft by the river, and at the bottom corner of one, in loose scratched lines, the heart he had penned, and the ship on the wide sea, as we spoke excitedly of our plans.”
― Kate Morton, The Clockmaker's Daughter

“I keep having this fantasy about some wide river or channel I'm on the bank of. I can look up, and on the far side is another, better self, holding hands with Mercer—that's his name, my ex—and both of them are watching me flail over here, watching me from the life I'm supposed to have had. When did it become impossible to get there from here? When did that bridge get burned?”
― Garth Risk Hallberg, City on Fire

“It just struck me how glad I am that I followed you up that hill," Shang continued. "If I hadn't been attacked by Shan-Yu, none of this might have happened."
Mulan's lips formed a coy smile. "You mean I never would have gone to Diyu, and you would never have been rescued by Ping's sister?"
"That," agreed Shang, "and I might never have discovered how I felt about... about you."
Her breath hitched. She couldn't take another step. Her feet had frozen, rooting themselves to the dusty road beneath her shoes.
"I meant what I said in front of the gates," said Shang softly. "I'll never meet another girl like you.”
― Elizabeth Lim, Reflection

“In another life, we might have spent this evening nestled in a corner table at some café, drinking good Bordeaux, listening to Chet Baker, discussing hypothetical trips to the Greek islands or the construction of a backyard greenhouse where we would consider the merits of growing a lemon (or avocado?) tree in a pot and sit under a bougainvillea vine like the one my mom planted the year I turned eleven, before my dad left. Jazz. Santorini. Lemon trees. Beautiful, loving details, none of which matter anymore. Not in this life, anyhow. That chapter has ended. No, the book has.”
― Sarah Jio, All the Flowers in Paris

“Diana talked about visits to Tokyo and Rome. Daisy listened, wistfully recalling her own grand plans. When Beatrice no longer needed bottles or sippie cups or an endless supply of chicken nuggets, Daisy had wanted to travel, and Hal had been perfectly amenable. The problem was that his idea of a perfect vacation was not Europe but, instead, a resort with a golf course that could be reached by a direct flight from Philadelphia International Airport, while Daisy wanted to eat hand-pulled noodles in Singapore and margherita pizza in Rome and warm pain au chocolat in Paris; she wanted to eat in a sushi bar in Tokyo and a trattoria in Tuscany; to eat paella in Madrid and green papaya salad in Thailand; shaved ice in Hawaii and French toast in Hong Kong; she wanted to encourage, in Beatrice, a love of food, of taste, of all the good things in the world. And she'd ended up married to a man who'd once told her that his idea of hell was a nine-course tasting menu.”
― Jennifer Weiner, That Summer

“His blue eyes smear into mine. 'You know, the sad thing is, I really liked you.' He gestures to my clothes. 'Even with all this, I could tell you were the same smart, funny girl I met in the café. That's who I wanted to get to know.'

I step forward. Eli knew, and he liked me. Not Alicia. 'I didn't thing you'd like me,' I say, my voice quiet. 'The real me.'

He shakes his head again. 'Now we'll never know.”
― Cynthia Omololu

“Bands don’t last. We’d have been a meteor shower. Over before we started.

- Meteor showers are fucking beautiful.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

“There's an empty space in my mind where those memories might have been.”
― Alice Winn, In Memoriam

“but she would never know. What would have been was a question that no one ever knew the answer to.”
― Stephanie Garber, Once Upon a Broken Heart

“Taking the chance is better than living in the hell of not knowing what could have been.”
― Melanie A. Smith, Elusive Love

“Hubiésemos podido prender el cielo juntos.”
― Yanira Garcia, Estúpidamente encantador

“They sat there, the air like ice, Everleigh's Ayane wig When I'm older, I'm gonna dye it purple for real!) and Maura's Super Mario mask (I can't breathe in this thing!) cast aside, eating ever one of their collective peanut butter cups. It felt indulgent. Fun. They licked the chocolate from their fingertips. They threw the paper cups across the floor. They feasted. And then there was just one package left, a full-sized score, two final cups inside. They lifted them, and then, as if they were older, an age Everleigh would never live to see, they clinked them together like glasses of champagne, dinging the chocolate, a toast to themselves.
"Let's do this every year," Everleigh declared.
"I'm in," Maura agreed, mouth full.
"I mean it! Promise. As long as one of us wants to go."
"Of course we will. Always."
It was the happiest they'd ever been.”
― Daria Lavelle, Aftertaste