19 Movie Quotes about Missed Opportunities (+ Sound Clips)

Updated: Nov 13, 2025

Memorable quotes about missed opportunities, selected from famous or less known movies by Movie-Sounds.org's visitors, accompanied by short mp3 and wav audio samples.

1 M'lad. You're passing up a golden opportunity. I am? -You can be famous. I can?

Kathryn Beaumont as Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1951)

2 Back then I thought, Well, there'll be other days. I didn't realize that that was the only day.

Burt Lancaster as Moonlight Graham in Field of Dreams (1989)

3 If you were waiting for the opportune moment, that was it.

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 1: The Curse of the Black Pearl

4 Have it your way, kid. But remember what Shakespeare said. And I quote. Opportunity knocks but... -Psst! Once! -But once! Taken at the tide, t'will lead to fortune. If denied, t'will never return.

Phillip Glasser as Fievel Mousekewitz in An American Tail

5 Yes. Poor girl. To have died so young without ever having experienced me.

Leon Greene as Miles Gloriosus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

6 Look, it just doesn't happen twice.

Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin in Sleepless in Seattle

7 Isn't it time to yell surprise? -Afraid not, buddy boy. We're too late.

Jim Cummings as Winnie The Pooh in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

8 So what was that like? -It was like coming this close to your dreams, and then watch them brush past you, like a stranger in a crowd.

Burt Lancaster as Moonlight Graham in Field of Dreams (1989)

9 At the time, you don't think much of it. You know, we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening.

Burt Lancaster as Moonlight Graham in Field of Dreams (1989)

10 I sure wish we'd have taken the train.

Bob Newhart as Bernard in The Rescuers (1977)