Top 100 What Could've Been Quotes
#1. I'm not going to hold my breath because life goes on. Life is too short to sit around moaning about what could have been or what was.
Tina Weymouth
#2. And suddenly I felt completely strange, like the distance between us was much much greater than what I could see from where I was standing. Like that line, always so clear to me, had somehow shifted, or never even been where I'd thought it was at all.
Sarah Dessen
#3. For too long nurses have been undervalued, restricted in what they could do, with too few career opportunities in clinical practice. For far too long, nurses have endured a pay system that has held them back - both professionally as well as financially.
John Hutton
#4. Yeah, I know what your English Professor tried to tell you. But if your English Professor could make a living writing fiction, they would have been doing it.
Dean Wesley Smith
#5. You can learn a lot about a person by where they are from and where they have chosen to be."
"You'll never know what could have been if it never was.
Sarah Sloat
#6. My stiffest earthly assignment is ended and my major life's work is done. My country is now free and I have been honoured to be its first indigenous head of state. What more could one desire in life?
Nnamdi Azikiwe
#7. He'd learned a lot in the short time he'd been with the Cahills, and one of the biggest lessons was not to hold back. Go for it now, because you never knew what could happen the next day, or even the next minute . - Pony
Natalie Standiford
#8. I'm not good, Mac. Never have been.'
What-true confession time? my eyes tease. Don't need it.
'I want what I want and I take it.'
Is he warning me? What could he possibly threaten me with now?
'There's nothing I can't live with. Only things I won't live without.
Karen Marie Moning
#9. About that mystifying enthusiasm a million years ago for turning over as many human activities as possible to machinery: What could that have been but yet another acknowledgment by people that their brains were no damn good?
Kurt Vonnegut
#10. I have been asked what would I ban immediately if I could. Advertising.
Vivienne Westwood
#11. I didn't so much think I needed to address the shooting need. What we needed was somebody who could come in and play the two-three (shooting guard-small forward) spot. If he could've been a pure shooter, great. But if not, we still needed somebody to give us minutes there. I like the guys we've got.
Joe Dumars
#12. You know what's funny about death? I mean other than absolutely nothing at all? You'd think we could remember finding out we weren't immortal. Sometimes I see children sobbing airports and I think, Aww. They've just been told.
Carrie Fisher
#13. 'Ugly Betty' has been the most important thing I've ever done, easily. I was able to do more with one character than I can ever imagine doing again - Hilda was hilariously funny and emotionally deep ... I really got to showcase what I could do with a character.
Ana Ortiz
#14. I am truly happy with what I've got. But if I could alter something, it would be my hands. I've never been satisfied with them - I would love longer fingers.
Carolina Herrera
#15. I'm a little frightened, perhaps. We always are, aren't we? When we have to open a door that's always been there...but we've never opened. [...] I mean frightened by the immensity of what lies beyond the door. A God of Love--infinite and eternal. How could I ever be worthy of that?
Tony Hendra
#16. I thought at 46 years old, I've been removed from the fashion industry for 10 years. I couldn't possibly write a model's book. That's for a 20-year-old. But I could say what I want to say without chastising the industry.
Iman
#17. I've kind of gotten more timid. I used to be fearless - at a certain point I didn't care about what anybody thought. I had all the answers and I could have been as bad as I wanted to be. But nowadays I just want to be good and make people happy.
Ariel Pink
#18. I've been alone most of my life because I'm the only person in the world I can rely on. For a few days I deluded myself into thinking you were someone I could believe in. That I could trust you and lean on you, that you would never lie to me. What a mistake I made.
Elizabeth Camden
#19. We've all been sick; we're all afraid of infection. I think the easiest application to help people understand what quorum sensing is and why it's important to study is to tell them that if we could make the bacteria either deaf or mute, we could create new antibiotics.
Bonnie Bassler
#20. Snakes are just very instinctive to me. I've been playing with snakes since before I could walk. It doesn't matter where or what it is, from the biggest to the most venomous.
Steve Irwin
#21. What could be more unjust than hurting an animal or a child? When you've been gifted dominion over something, that responsibility is real.
Maggie Q
#22. When I first came to work her i spotted a problem that needed to be solved, but I didn't know what to do. So I called the One Minute Manager. When he answered the phone, I said, Sir, I have a problem. Befor I could get another word out, he said, Good! That's what you've been hired to solve.
Kenneth H. Blanchard
#23. I could've totally cut out your heart before you knew what was happening." "What stopped you?" "I thought Montgomery might've been pissed off at all the blood on the sheets." "Montgomery would never be something as uncouth as pissed off. Annoyed in an icily genteel manner, perhaps.
Nalini Singh
#24. And I had the feeling he was far out ahead of me then and in many things. Any time spent with your child is partly a damn sad time, the sadness of life a-going, bright, vivid, each time a last. A loss. A glimpse into what could've been. It can be corrupting. I
Richard Ford
#25. Working with the doctors is a fascinating two-way process. I am interested in what they suggest about why I'm the way I am. But if they could make me 'normal', I wouldn't want that. I've been like this for so long, it's what makes me .
Daniel Tammet
#26. I've been working at performing for five years now. I've been working in Australia and Spain and England. When I was only 15 or 16, 1 was performing in bars; I could have had legal problems, but it's also the only way to get to know what music is all about.
Andy Gibb
#27. Weren't we though? Timeless? Nothing could change what we'd had all those years before, even if the idea of what might've been lingered between us.
Renee Carlino
#28. I've been trying to come to terms with what I am and what I do and what I believe in. And I see that I'm not happy with - well, it's almost as if being a poet is not enough for me. It's too late for me to do more now. I did what I could in a small way. I did it as theater, too, to be honest.
Gerald Stern
#29. I've never been one for religion, but yet I've never been what ye could call an unbeliever. What I say is, nothin' don't seem impossible once you've clapped eyes on a whale.
Elizabeth Goudge
#30. I've been here all the time; I could be putting out as many albums as Costello, y'know what I mean?
Shane MacGowan
#31. I've always been searching. What am I going to do with all this - searching for that place where I could be me.
Desiree Rogers
#33. It's been constant grinding and trying to secure work that I care about, tireless auditions and meetings. I've been fortunate that a lot of cool doors have opened to me, chiefly meeting great people who were inspired by what I've done and what they feel I could bring to their projects.
Keith Stanfield
#34. Our lives are entwined and we're bound together by everything that we've been through, what we feel and the love I have for you. I know you love me too Layla and I wish I could make it all right again but I can't.
Marie Coulson
#35. I wondered if this was how you'd felt.
I wondered if I was making myself feel how you'd felt.
I knew it wasn't a choice. It was just what my mind was doing.
Although I could've been fighting it more.
David Levithan
#36. To be quite honest, I've been very blessed when I've worked with Hollywood. The studios that have purchased my work to be adapted to film have really liked the work and wanted to stay as close as they could to what the book was.
Nicholas Sparks
#37. But for me, being an editor I've been an editor of all kinds of books being an editor of poetry has been the way in which I could give a crucial part of my time to what I love most.
Peter Davison
#38. For years, I've been wondering what could happen to nuclear submarines when they dive and disappear from the surface of the earth for months, without a trace. No one really knows where they are.
Guy Hamilton
#39. Our music has always been instant reactive and I guess taking our time to absorb things and say what you really want to say could be much more offensive than anything we've ever done.
Fred Durst
#40. I've been doing voices as long as I can remember. When I was little I could pick up on sounds, and then I discovered you could distort what you hear and make people laugh or disrupt a class.
Frank Welker
#41. Also by my earliest days, I was fascinated by a utopian vision of what the world could be like. I've thought that science could be the basis for a better world, and that's what I've been trying to do all these years.
George E. Brown Jr.
#42. I've been told by professional drug users that if I did the drugs, I would like the Dead. It seems like the most effective PSA against drugs could just play some Dead jams and say, "If you do drugs, you will like this kind of music." What other deterrent would one need?
Penn Jillette
#44. I've been very lucky, man. Like you say, though, the writing is what kicked all that in and made it possible. It's something that I have always been very thankful of, that that kicked in, and that I could be free with the music.
Tony Joe White
#45. I was very lucky with the parents I was blessed with. I don't think it could have worked out any better. They've always been so understanding of me and understanding of what I want to do.
Emma Stone
#46. 'I've been privileged to occasionally hear you sing in the shower and thought
what a voice. With a reasonable amount of training, it might actually be a voice I could listen to for more than a few minutes without getting a migraine.'
Barbara Elsborg
#47. It doesn't matter how greatly you've been hurt or how much you're hurting, it's what you do with the pain that counts. You could cry for years or you could choose to learn and grow from it.
Chris Colfer
#48. I love what I do. I was given the most incredible gift that can be given to anyone. I could never imagine a world without music, and I feel grateful that I've been given the ability to share that.
Dionne Warwick
#49. What people need to know is that asthma isn't a minor 'wheeze-disease.' It kills over five thousand people in America every year, and I could've been one of them.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
#50. I've never been the kind of man who believed in dreams, Kat. That wasn't the hand I got dealt. So I sure as hell never spent any time chasing them." He swallowed hard and nodded. "But meeting you . . . if I could've dreamed, if I'd have even known what to dream of, it would've been of you.
Laura Kaye
#51. I've seen guys come along with more ability - they've been faster or bigger or stronger - but they never worked hard to develop themselves. Sometimes I've wondered what I could have done with their talent. On the other hand, the tag that I was too small and slow made me work hard.
Steve Largent
#52. Look what they did to MaCauley Culkin. The poor child. I know because I've been there. But I could say after living my life, truth will always win out. And no one can take my character away from me anymore.
Linda Blair
#53. Percy, we're going to Polyphemus' island! Polyphemus is an S-i-k ... a C-y-k ... " She stamped her foot in frustration. As smart as she was, Annabeth was dyslexic, too. We could've been there all night while she tried to spell Cyclops. "You know what I mean!
Rick Riordan
#54. Now, there are people that are Christian artists, because they have a purpose to be evangelical for Christ. I don't feel I've been called to that yet. Now, that could change. There's no telling what kind of call God will put on my life.
Scott Stapp
#55. You ask me what I'd like to do that I haven't done and I say 'Nothin'!' I haven't any mountains to climb or oceans to swim. I've been an extremely blessed individual ... I'm not clamorin' for more trinkets. If I were to die tomorrow, I could say I've had a good life.
Ray Charles
#56. If you've ever been hungry then you'll never be full and I know what it's like to be hungry. When I was 13, I realized I could control my destiny through hard work. I had my hands and I was going to work my ass off, I was going to initiate and create some sort of change in my life.
Dwayne Johnson
#57. I've been worried for a long time. I've just been doing what I could. I don't really have much choice.
Makoto Shinkai
#58. Heterophemize (v.) To say something different from what you mean to say. Think back on all the things you've said in life that you truly wish you hadn't. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just claim afterward that you had been heterophemizing, and be instantly forgiven? Homodoxian
Ammon Shea
#59. The trouble is, we've been taught what to see and how to render what we see. If only we could be in the position of those men who did those wonderful drawings in Lascaux and Altimira!
Pablo Picasso
#60. Have you been drinking this morning? How did you miss me? I swear I've fought old women with better reflexes. (Takeshi)
The fact you fight old women tells me just how rusty you've become. What? Your ego needed the boost and they were the only ones you could find you could beat? (Savitar)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
#61. What's odd is that I've never been asked to do any comedy in film. That's something I could certainly do.
Richard McCabe
#62. I don't regret what I've been through. I've had ups and downs, super highs and some really low lows. I've been so blessed that I could never say, 'I wish this didn't happen.' It's part of who I am. There's nothing in my life that's so ugh.
Jennifer Lopez
#63. Riley might've been more appreciative had he had any idea what was going on. He tried to rouse himself, find out specifics, but his head was throbbing - or maybe that was his brain; he could've sworn it was about to go pop like an overripe berry under a truck tire ...
J. Fally
#64. [Keenan] 'What am I going to do?' He sank to the floor.
[Donia] 'Hope that some of us are kinder to you than you've been to us,' she whispered. Then, before she could soften again, she walked away and left the Summer King kneeling in her foyer.
Melissa Marr
#65. Think about your favorite work and your creative heroes. What did they miss? What didn't they make? What could've been made better? If they were still alive, what would they be making today? If all your favorite makers got together and collaborated, what would they make with you leading the crew?
Austin Kleon
#66. You could move to Europe."
"You know, I've actually been considering that lately."
Kai laughed again, the warmth returning to the sound. "If that's not a vote of confidence, I don't know what is.
Marissa Meyer
#67. But what I wanted back had never really been there. He was a temporary illusion, a mirage of water after walking in the desert. I had made him up. And he could have killed me. You've got to stop the ride sometimes. Stop it and get off.
Deb Caletti
#68. I'm always glad to be offered roles, but wouldn't take any role as this could do you more harm than good, but I've been at what they call 'on the top' as far as being known for twenty years.
Peter Cushing
#69. I want to make a picture that could stand on its own, regardless of what it was a picture of. I've never been a bit interested in the fact that this was a picture of a blues musician or a street corner or something.
William Eggleston
#70. I originally invested in Dropcam because I foresaw what the company and their products could do for consumers and the industry. I've been deeply impressed with what they've done in such little time, and I'm confident that they'll continue to exceed my expectations.
Mitch Kapor
#71. I could tell her, I have feelings for you I haven't had before. I've been struggling with them since the first second I saw you, weeks ago. I don't know what these feelings mean, but I want to find out.
Christina Lauren
#72. I've been incredibly lucky. I've worked in two iconic shows, 'Carry On' and 'EastEnders.' If it all ended tomorrow - and it could - I'd just be terribly grateful. I've been fortunate enough to do what I love and get paid for it.
Barbara Windsor
#73. Let go of resentment, for it will hold you back. Do not worry about what could've been, what is to come is what matters.
Leon Brown
#74. I think right now the way society's going, I think role models are important, and kids need direction. If I didn't have that direction growing up, who knows what I could be doing, because I've been lost many times in my life, and I've had to have someone guide me back on the right path.
Jeremy Lin
#75. I went to my 30th high school reunion, and I could tell who was gay and who was straight because the gay people were like, 'Sarah, you've been doing so much,' and the straight people were like, 'So, Sarah, what have you been doing?
Sarah Schulman
#76. Reducing the price of AIDS drugs gave me so much satisfaction that I've been thinking what else I could do. One day, I thought, 'Let's look at cancer and see how we can spare cancer patients' unnecessary suffering.'
Yusuf Hamied
#77. What is Hell like?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. Damn my curiosity.
"You've never been there?" He eyed me suspiciously. Yeah, I went to Hell every summer for vacation.
Alycia Linwood
#78. Eddie, It's like you died that night, he whispers.
So that's it. I died.
I've been dead.
I blink back the tears and pick at the mattress, but I don't say anything. I don't know what I could say to him. I don't know how to convince him I'm still here when I'm not sure of it myself anymore.
Courtney Summers
#79. Nothing yet. I've been waiting."
"for what?"
she made no response. she could not tell him that she had been waiting for him.
Milan Kundera
#80. I have too much to lose, she said, if I cross that line. Like what? I said. She could not think of anything that day so she said she'd get back to me. Since then I've been thinking what I would lose if I cross my line & I haven't come up with anything either. There's always another line somewhere.
Brian Andreas
#81. What the hell could you do? I've never been arrested, I haven't taken drugs, I've had the same wife for 54 years where's anything of interest to people?
Stan Lee
#82. I've been just wondering lately, if this is, you know, it. An apartment and a steady job and some people to love. What more could I want?
Michael Cunningham
#83. I've never been afraid of much, and like any normal kid, I liked to push the limits of what I could do.
Kacy Catanzaro
#84. Even when life turns out different than what you've planned, it's always better to try and fail than to wonder what could have been.
Kirsten Hubbard
#85. I've been designing since I was 8. I started sketching dresses I could wear when skating. I was always involved in all aspects of skating, not just the technique, the choreography, the music, but the visual aspects, too - what I should wear.
Vera Wang
#86. I've been an atheist since I was nine years old. And my mom is really religious, so we have a strange relationship. But if my mother was right, what would be the reason that the gods could let anything bad happen in the world?
Tarsem Singh
#87. Life goes on whether you choose to move on and take a chance in the unknown or stay behind, locked in the past, thinking of what could've been. I don't want to live in the past anymore. I'm so lonely here, there's nothing for me here anymore.
Stephanie Smith
#88. I could tell him I've been worried for weeks about what the aptitude test will tell me - Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity, or Dauntless?
Veronica Roth
#89. Then she yelled at him. "Are out of your mind? You could have been killed!" Kor looked stunned for a moment, then grinned. "You mean you'd care?" "No." Then at his pointed look, she muttered, "Maybe a little." "You're mine whether you've said the mating words or not. No one touches what is mine.
Eve Langlais
#90. I loved to read, and if I could've been a professional reader, that's probably what I would've wanted to be!
Kathryn Lasky
#91. There is no point in thinking of what could've been; no point in belaboring the past.
Christine Fonseca
#92. I don't get it. I mean, he told me he loved me and then just disappeared. How could he? We've been best friends forever and now he can't even talk to me? What the hell?
Miranda Kenneally
#93. I grew up the son of an acting teacher, so I was kind of introduced to all of these various methods early ... I've never been really good at articulating how, what that process is in the way that Stanislavsky could.
Vin Diesel
#94. How do you know? You've done nothing, been nowhere. How do you have the faintest idea what kind of person you are?" How could someone like him have the slightest clue what it felt like to be me? I felt almost cross with him for willfully not getting it. "Go on. Open
Jojo Moyes
#95. She must have been tired, because instead of jamming the whip down Monique's throat, she stood up and, in a very even tone, said, If you think you've seen me mad before, imagine what I could do to you when I've just lost everything.
Barbra Annino
#96. You did the best you could," and she seemed to believe I had.
I said, "I've just been going through the motions," using the expression my father had after he'd watched my first tennis lesson.
"Sweetie," she said, "that's what a lot of life is.
Melissa Bank
#97. I often find things at thrift stores and library sales that I never could have been looking for. In those cases, the research is done after the fact to figure out what, exactly, I've found. It's surprising how much out there still has no online presence.
Michael Dumontier
#98. I've always been the, 'Sure, I'll try that' guy. I'm very adventurous and don't have fears. I think I got that from my mother's side because she was an Olympic skier. Jump off a mountain with a parachute? Sure. What could possibly go wrong?
Donald Trump Jr.
#99. He could almost have been an American, he was so tan and had such good teeth, but I could tell straight away that he wasn't. He had what no American man I've ever met has had, and that's intuition.
Sylvia Plath
#100. I don't know what I saw. It could've been a hallucination. You get those from sniffing glue."
"You've never sniffed glue!"
"I've smelled glue," Jamie said after a pause. "In art class.
Sarah Rees Brennan
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top