Historical Regrets

William McKinley

The President Without a Degree

"That I did not go to college has been one of the greatest regrets of my life."

Robin Williams

The Sad Clown

"I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless."

Nikola Tesla

The Man Who Invented the 20th Century

"The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine."

Alfred Nobel

The Merchant of Death

"My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace."

Mikhail Kalashnikov

The Man Who Armed the World

"I keep asking myself the same question. If my rifle took people's lives, can it be that I... am to blame for their deaths?"

Cleopatra VII

The Queen Who Died as a Goddess

"I will not be triumphed over."

Napoleon Bonaparte

The Emperor of Solitude

"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily."

Hassan-i Sabbah

The Old Man of the Mountain

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

Albert Einstein

The Pacifist Who Armed the World

"Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing."

Orville Wright

Pioneer of Aviation

"We dared to hope we had invented something that would bring lasting peace to the earth. But we were wrong."

Vincent van Gogh

The Starry Night of Sorrow

"La tristesse durera toujours. (The sadness will last forever.)"

Fritz Haber

The Chemist of Life and Death

"During peace time a scientist belongs to the World, but during war time he belongs to his country."

Robert Oppenheimer

The Destroyer of Worlds

""Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.""

Marie Curie

The Eternal Glow

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood."

Alan Turing

The Silent Hero

"Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine."

Leonardo da Vinci

The Architect of Dreams

"Art is never finished, only abandoned."

Ernest Hemingway

The Titan of the Iceberg

"Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another."

Frida Kahlo

The Queen of Resilience

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do."

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar's Ghost

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am."

Kurt Cobain

The Unwilling Messiah

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not."

Amy Winehouse

The Queen of Camden

"I don't think I could handle fame. I would go mad."

Joseph Stalin

The Architect of the Iron Curtain

"This creature softened my heart of stone. She died and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity."