“It was not his habit to dwell on what might have been but what could never be.”
“What is, is, and what might have been could never have existed.”
“Life is too short to dwell on what might have been.”
“It's just the way things are. And you can't dwell on what might have been. You have to look at what is.”
“Things are what they are and there's no point dwelling in the past or wondering what could have been.”
“Our habit of wishing backward from what is to what might have been is the soft but persistent tapping that cracks the crystal.”