...• Past potential. This, of course, is entirely bitter. As Quaker poet John GreenleafWhittier wrote: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" Present potential is the most alluring. It is the essence of any turnaround opportunity;...

...chance to do something really special," I said. She grinned. "Is that all?" I quoted the Whittier line: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" I threw my arm over my eyes so that I couldn't see her laughing. 274 Then I quoted...

...enters into a loveless marriage. In the final stanza of the poem Whittier offers us this famous warning: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" "It might have been." One of the things about the Zacchaeus story, as we saw, is...