Blurb
After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or experience, she found herself working in palliative care. Over the years she spent tending to the needs of those who were dying, Bronnie’s life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog about the most common regrets expressed to her by the people she had cared for. The article, also called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, gained so much momentum that it was read by more than three million people around the globe in its first year. At the requests of many, Bronnie now shares her own personal story. Bronnie has had a colorful and diverse past, but by applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for people, if they make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this book, she expresses in a heartfelt retelling how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a story told through sharing her inspiring and honest journey, which will leave you feeling kinder towards yourself and others and more determined to live the life you are truly here to live. This delightful memoir is a courageous, life-changing book.
Reading Experience
“The Top Five Regrets of the Dying” was an insightful book overall, however I found myself skimming over some of the sections where the author delved into her personal life. While those parts didn’t really hold my attention, I did come to appreciate her personal anecdotes that actually felt relevant to the essence of the book.
The real depth, however, came through in her reflections on the regrets shared by her patients nearing the end of life. Those passages were absolutely moving and held an uncanny reminder of what it truly means to live life fully. It’s as if these truths are universal and they are facts that we are already aware of, secrets that we already carry somewhere deep within but often ignore until time is no longer on our side. This book is a wake-up call to stop delaying and start aligning life with what genuinely fulfills us—before time slips by.
Book Quotes
1.
How can it be possible I have waited all of these years to be free and independent and now it’s too late?
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
2.
One thing that kept me there was the fear of ridicule I would face from some family members, if I broke out of the mould they expected me to fit into. I was living someone else’s life through my shoes and it was never going to work.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
3.
The pain that I had accepted from others had been their own suffering projected onto me. Happy people don’t treat other people that way, nor do they judge others for living a life true to his or her self. If anything, they respect it
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
4.
Racism is something I will never understand. The majority of us are the same: we just want to be happy and, on some level, we all have hearts that suffer.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
5.
We are all fairly malleable, bendable creatures. While we have the choice to think for ourselves and free will to live the way our hearts desire, our environment has a huge effect on us all, particularly when we start choosing life from a more conscious perspective.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
6.
While most people may not live trapped in a bed, it is possible to create a life where the traps that hold us back are self-created and desperately need releasing.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
7.
We spend so much time making plans for the future, often depending on things happening at a later date to assure our happiness or assuming we have all the time in the world, when all we ever have is our life today.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
8.
My role had come to define me in a way. Of course now as I sit here dying, I see that just being a good person is more than enough in life. Why do we depend so much on the material world to validate us?
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
9.
‘There’s nothing wrong with wanting a better life. Don’t get me wrong,’ he said. ‘It’s just that the chase for more, and the need to be recognised through our achievements and belongings, can hinder us from the real things, like time with those we love, time doing things we love ourselves, and balance. It’s probably all about balance really, isn’t it?
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
10.
Don’t create a life where you are going to regret working too hard. I didn’t know I was going to regret it until now, when I’m facing the very end. But deep in my heart, I always knew I was working too hard.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
11.
Money is so misunderstood. It keeps people in the wrong jobs forever because they think they won’t be able to make money doing what they love, when it can really be the other way around.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
12.
My walls of privacy were being eroded and I began to wonder why we are all so afraid of being open and honest. Of course, we do it to avoid pain that may come as a result of our honesty. But those walls we create bring pain of their own, by stopping others from knowing who we truly are.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
13.
‘Yes, it takes courage, Bronnie,’ Jude continued. ‘That’s the point I’m trying to make. It takes courage to express your feelings, particularly if you’re not doing okay and need assistance, or if you’ve expressed honest feelings to someone you love and don’t know how it will be received. But the more you practise sharing your feelings, whatever they are, the better things become. Pride is such a waste of time.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
14.
Assuming others know how you feel and that you will always be there are high risks to take. They could be dead in an hour, so could any of us. We risk paying a high price if we take people for granted. Not every day is going to be a happy one. We are all growing, and all have hard days, but there are loving thoughts to be shared too. This is why it is imperative to share your feelings honestly and listen to others on a regular basis. It is too easy to get caught up in your own little world and forget.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
15.
It wasn’t just Sundays though. Loneliness leaves emptiness in the heart that can physically kill you. The ache is unbearable and the longer it hangs around, the more despair adds to it. Miles of city streets, country roads, and everything in between were walked during those years. Loneliness isn’t a lack of people. It is a lack of understanding and acceptance.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
16.
When I had to seriously contemplate my whole life and accept that, despite my efforts, I may actually pass away from this illness and not live to an old age, I reached a point where I found an amazing peace. Realizing I had already lived an incredible life, including having the courage to honour my own heart and calling, allowed me to look death in the face and accept either outcome.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
17.
It is a pity that being who we truly are requires so much courage, but it does. It takes enormous courage at times. Being who we are, whoever that is, sometimes cannot even be articulated at first, even to ourself. All we know is there is a yearning within that is not being fulfilled by the life we are currently living. Having to explain this to others, who have not walked in our shoes, may just leave us questioning ourself further.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
18.
With so many people throwing muck on us, we figure that they must be right. So we join in, throwing muck on ourselves too. All of the muck throwers can’t be wrong. If we are going to throw muck on ourself, then it must be normal and okay to throw muck on others too. We throw some more and continue to let others throw it on us. Eventually, we are carrying so much muck that not only are we weighed down by it, but our light cannot be seen anymore. Every inch of us is covered in muck, a lot of it from what others have thrown and some from when we joined in and started throwing it on ourself as well.
Then one day we remember there was once a beautiful light shining in us. But things have been dark for so long, we hardly remember that part of ourself.
– Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
As we wrap up this blog post on the quotes and takeaways from The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware, let’s take a moment to reflect. These quotes do remind us that time is the most valuable resource for every single person on this planet, and the choices that we make—whether it’s about love, work, or individual authenticity—are what truly shape our lives. In a world full of distractions, this book anchors us back to what matters the most: living fully, authentically, and without regrets.
Until next time,
Ri @ Readably Yours
