Apologies Quotes

“It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

“Leo lowered his screwdriver. He looked at the ceiling and shook his head like, What am I gonna do with this guy?
"I try very hard to be annoying," Leo said. "Don't insult my ability to annoy. And how am I supposed to resent you if you go apologizing? I'm a lowly mechanic. You're like the prince of the sky, son of the Lord of the Universe. I'm supposed to resent you."
"Lord of the Universe?" (Jason)
"Sure, you're all-bam! Lightning man. And 'Watch me fly. I am the eagle that soars-" (Leo)
"Shut up, Valdez." (Jason)
Leo managed a little smile. "Yeah, see. I do annoy you."
"I apologize for apologizing." (Jason)
"Thank you." He went back to work, but the tension had eased between them. Leo still looked sad and exhausted-just not quite so angry.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero

“Never apologize for showing your feelings. When you do, you are apologizing for the truth.”
― José N. Harris, MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love

“one thing I don’t need
is any more apologies
i got sorry greetin me at my front door
you can keep yrs
i don’t know what to do wit em
they don’t open doors
or bring the sun back
they don’t make me happy
or get a mornin paper
didn’t nobody stop usin my tears to wash cars
cuz a sorry.”
― Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf

“What's the n-never-fail universal apology?"

"'I was badly misinformed, I deeply regret the error, go fuck yourself with this bag of money.”
― Scott Lynch, The Republic of Thieves

“It's always too late for sorries, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“What man ever openly apologizes for slander? It is not so much a feeling of slander as it is that of a massive lie, a misdeed not only to the slandered but also to those manipulated in the process. He has made them all, every one, his enemies, thereupon he is so overwhelmed with guilt that he will deny it until his grave.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Apologize: To lay the foundation for a future offence.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“When a person tells you that you hurt them, you don’t get to decide that you didn’t.”
― Louis C.K.

“If an apology is followed by an excuse or a reason, it means they are going to commit same mistake again they just apologized for.”
― Amit Kalantri

“He sighed. "I don't think an apology will do, Mercy. Because an apology implies that you wouldn't do it again. And, under the circumstances, you wouldn't do anything differently, would you?

"No.”
― Patricia Briggs

“You broke her heart in person—you fix it in person!”
― RJ Gonzales, Mundahlia

“Proper apologies have three parts:

1) What I did was wrong.
2) I feel badly that I hurt you.
3) How do I make this better?”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“The two main criminals are France and the United States. They owe Haiti enormous reparations because of actions going back hundreds of years. If we could ever get to the stage where somebody could say, 'We're sorry we did it,' that would be nice. But if that just assuages guilt, it's just another crime. To become minimally civilized, we would have to say, 'We carried out and benefited from vicious crimes. A large part of the wealth of France comes from the crimes we committed against Haiti, and the United States gained as well. Therefore we are going to pay reparations to the Haitian people.' Then you will see the beginnings of civilization.”
― Noam Chomsky, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World

“Just this minute, I'll settle for an apology, she decided. And I wont' board the boat without one. Even if Kaz isn't sorry, he can pretend. He at least owes me his best imitation of a human being.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“By the day's end I realized that there were a zillion ways to apologize to someone, but none of them mattered if you never opened your mouth.”
― Jennifer Jabaley, Lipstick Apology

“Every time you show your feelings, you apologize. Have you ever had an emotion in your life that you weren't ashamed of?”
― R.J. Anderson, Ultraviolet

“She'd never mastered the talent for apologizing, but she appreciated it in other people.”
― Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

“Don't say you're sorry, ask me how much it cost.”
― Stuart Connelly

“When a lady condescends to apologise, there is no keeping one’s anger.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“The first reaction is surely the most natural one, but not always the most correct one; thereupon, the invention of apologies.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“You must remember, though, that most normal people have never seen an orogene, let alone had to do business with one, and—” She spreads her hands. “Isn’t it understandable that we might be… uncomfortable?” “Discomfort is understandable. It’s the rudeness that isn’t.” Rust this. This woman doesn’t deserve the effort of her explanation. Syen decides to save that for someone who matters. “And that’s a really shitty apology. ‘I’m sorry you’re so abnormal that I can’t manage to treat you like a human being.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“I will not say I am sorry, but I can tell you that I grieve.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana

“If you don’t know why you’re apologizing, your apology probably sucks.”
― Holly Black, Black Heart

“How do you know when an apology is true—when it means something, or can change something, or will last outside the moment?”
― Beth Kephart, Undercover

“And me being jealous of how a girl like Abby could move here and choose to befriend you out of everyone, and you have so many friends already, and I don't think you even get what a big deal that is. ,.. I'm just saying that it seems like it's so easy for you, and you should know you're actually really lucky.
... You deserve it completely. You're an awesome dude, Spier and it was cool getting to know you. If I could do it again, I would have blackmailed you into being my friend and left it at that.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“I exhaust my body throughout the day,
And I don’t get enough sleep at night.
I swallow the words I have to say,
And let my thoughts fuck up my peace of mind.
In a matter of fact; I’ve been the one who tired me the most and I do owe myself many apologies …”
― Samiha Totanji

“If other people owe you an apology, and your words of apology to them are proper and heartfelt, you still may not hear from them for a while. After all, what are the odds that they get to the right emotional place to apologize at the exact moment you do? So just be patient. Many times in my career, I saw students apologize, and then several days later, their teammates came around. Your patience will be both appreciated and rewarded.”
― Randy Pausch

“I'm sorry, Arty,' she whispered into his ear.
'Sorry for what?'
'For everything. For the last few months, I haven't been myself. But things are going to change. Time to stop living in the past.'
Artemis felt a tear on his cheek. He wasn't sure whose tear it was.”
― Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl

“...sorry is a tool one uses to pander until the word itself becomes currency. It no longer merely apologizes, but insists, reminds: I'm here, right here, beneath you. It is the lowering of oneself so that the client feels right, superior, and charitable... one's definition of sorry is deranged into a new word entirely, one that's charged and reused as both power and defacement at once. Being sorry pays, being sorry even, or especially, when one has no fault, is worth every self-deprecating syllable the mouth allows. Because the mouth must eat.”
― Ocean Vuong