Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.
 Jerome K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886). copy citation

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Author Jerome K. Jerome
Source Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
Topic happiness regret
Date 1886
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/849/849-h/849-h.htm

Context

“Let us not sit with folded hands, gazing upon the past as if it were the building; it is but the foundation. Let us not waste heart and life thinking of what might have been and forgetting the may be that lies before us. Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone. Years ago, when I used to wander of an evening from the fireside to the pleasant land of fairy-tales, I met a doughty knight and true. Many dangers had he overcome, in many lands had been; and all men knew him for a brave and well-tried knight, and one that knew not fear;” source