25 Best Quotes about Turning Back Time: If We Only Had a Time Machine

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling somewhat nostalgic and wistful now that we’ve bid farewell to yet another year. Sometimes, I wish I could go back in the past to relive some moments, make a few different choices here and there, or slap my naïve younger self.

If you, too, are in the mood to reminisce in these early days of 2020, go ahead and read through my favorite quotes about turning back time.

25 Wise, Sad, and Funny Quotes About Turning Back Time

Nostalgic and Bittersweet Quotes About Turning Back Time

#1. “What I want, more than anything, is to turn back time a little. To become the kid I used to be, who believed whatever my mother said was one hundred percent true and right, without looking hard enough to see the hairline crack.” — Jodi Picoult

#2. “Sometimes, I wish I was a little kid again… Skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts.”

#3. “Perhaps it’s true you can’t go back in time, but you can return to the scene of a love, of a crime, of happiness, and of a fateful decision; the places are what remain, are what you can possess, are what is immortal. They become the tangible landscape of memory, the places that made you, and in some way, you too become them. They are what you can possess, and, in the end, what possesses you.” — Rebecca Solnit

Quotes About Turning Back Time to Fix Your Mistakes

#4. “If I could go back to the day we met, I’m sorry, but I would turn around and walk the other way.” — M.B.

#5. “We cannot go back in time and change the past, but we can repent.” — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

#6. “Time passes unhindered. When we make mistakes, we cannot turn the clock back and try again. All we can do is use the present well.” — Dalai Lama

#7. “I now look at the things I could have done better, and, instead of beating myself up about it, since I can’t turn back time, I try to remember to ask myself, ‘What was this experience sent to me to teach me?’ I think specifically about what I will do better next time, then I actively look for moments to practice for the next time.” — Jane Park

#8. “Why would anyone want to turn back time? There is no meaning in regret, no point in thinking about the things I could have done. Because there is no guarantee that any decision is the right one.” — Kazuya Minekura

#9. “Life is a learning experience. All you can do is learn from your mistakes, but you can’t go back in time.” — Amy Dumas

#10. “But if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t do a single thing differently. What if all those things I did were the things that got me here?” — Cheryl Strayed

#11. “If I could turn back time, if I could find a way, I’d take back those words that have hurt you, and you’d stay.” — Cher

Love Quotes About Turning Back Time and Reliving It All

#12. “Right then, I wanted to go back in time and relive every moment with him. One more secret smile, one more shared laugh. One more electric kiss. Finding him was like finding someone I didn’t know I was searching for. He’d come into my life too late, and now was leaving too soon.” — Becca Fitzpatrick

#13. “I wish I could turn back time. I regret all the times I didn’t tell you how much I love you back when you were still mine.”

#14. “I wish I could simply turn back the clock and take back every single mistake I made along the way that made you not want me anymore.” — L. W.

#15. “I wish I could turn back the clock; I’d find you sooner and love you longer.”

#16. “If I could turn back time, I would do it all again with you.”

Funny Quotes About Turning Back Time to Brighten Your Day

#17. “Okay, I’ll say I would go back in time and bring scientists with me and create a hairspray that would not cause global warming. But it would still give us ‘80s hair.” — Julianne Hough

#18. “I’m still working on my time machine. If I ever perfect it, I’m going back in time to prevent Ace Ventura 2 from being made. And then, I’m going after Hitler.” — Andy Kindler

#19. “What’s amazing to me now is that I actually recall fixating on the fact that my thighs a-l-m-o-s-t touched at the top… If I could go back in time and slap my eighteen-year-old self, I would. I would tell her to snap out of it because that’s the best your thighs will ever be. You should take pictures of your thighs right now so you can remember how amazing they were!” — Anita Renfroe

Quotes About Turning Back Time to Make You Hopeful for the Future

#20. “You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.” — Bonnie Prudden

#21. “Sometimes, I wish I could go back in time, sit down with myself, and explain that things were going to be okay, that everybody loses ground sometimes, and it doesn’t mean anything. It’s the way life works. This is hard to understand in the moment. You get to thinking about the girl who rejected you, the job you got fired from, the test you failed, and you lose sight of the big picture — the fact that life has a beautiful way of remaking itself every few weeks.” — Donald Miller

#22. “There’s going to be moments in life where you are going to want to turn back — that’s when you have to go on.” — Ritu Ghatourey

#23. “Sometimes, I wish we could turn back the time. Free to relive moments, even just for a while, we can escape what tires us. But I know we cannot. We can only keep going. But maybe when we keep going — with love and for love, we’ll find better moments. And we’ll own it. And we’ll be happy we didn’t give up.” — Jerico Silvers

#24. “If I could turn back time, I would tell myself that I’m beautiful every day because we all are! And we need to start believing it!” — Demi Lovato

#25. “We can’t solve modern problems by going back in time. Retreating to the safety of the familiar is an understandable response, but God has called us to a life of faith. And faith requires us to face the unknown while trusting Him completely.” — Charles R. Swindoll

To Conclude

Do you know the old saying that life only makes sense backward, but we only get to live it forward? Truer words were never spoken.

I hope that my little collection of quotes about turning back time will inspire us all both to learn from the past and live fully in the present. New year, here we come!