"For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'"
About this Quote
The subtext is moral as much as emotional. “Might” signals agency, the sense that a different choice was available; “have been” turns that possibility into a closed door. Whittier isn’t writing about fate’s cruelty so much as hesitation, missed courage, and the human talent for realizing value only after the moment has passed. The line works because it’s brutally compact: five words that carry an entire counterfactual life.
Context matters. Whittier, a Quaker poet and abolitionist steeped in the 19th century’s reform culture, often treated conscience as something lived, not merely felt. This couplet comes from “Maud Muller,” a poem built on mutual inaction: two people imagine a life together and then return to their separate paths. The tragedy isn’t forbidden love; it’s ordinary timidity. That’s why the quote has lasted. It flatters no one, offers no catharsis, just the chilling recognition that the most painful elegies can be for the selves we never became.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sadness |
|---|---|
| Source | John Greenleaf Whittier , line from the poem 'Maud Muller' (contains: "For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'"). |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Whittier, John Greenleaf. (2026, January 15). For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/for-all-sad-words-of-tongue-and-pen-the-saddest-126303/
Chicago Style
Whittier, John Greenleaf. "For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/for-all-sad-words-of-tongue-and-pen-the-saddest-126303/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/for-all-sad-words-of-tongue-and-pen-the-saddest-126303/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.
