From Rules of Civility by Amor Towles: “I know that right choices by definition are the means by which life crystallizes loss.”
My family has always believed that the decision you made was the right one because you made it. And I stand by that. But this quick little sentence is such a poignant reminder of—giving weight to—those decisions not made, or not chosen.
It explains how you can know something is right, and it doesn’t discount what wasn’t right. That’s where the loss is, and its crystallization preserves its importance.