Saddest words of tongue or pen

At a seminar a few days ago, I heard a sentence that, to me, seemed the saddest possible in a human being’s life. It was spoken in passing, without the littlest bit of grief, and had nothing to do with the subject being discussed. Just that the speaker, while answering a question, spoke of a nagging wish that his people used to have. “We’ve given up that dream now,” he added, before moving on to answer the question.
For some reason, the sentence filled me with immense grief. I cannot imagine a worse thing than having to give up a dream. Now, I know you’re thinking of much worse things — losing a limb, or a loved one, having your home destroyed in riots or wars… there’s a long list. But consider, for a moment, any of the above scenarios. Life doesn’t stop at loss. Whether it is your home or your loved one, you pick up the broken shards, and try to rebuild your life. And there’s only one thing that enables you to do it. Hope. Dreams. The dream that you can create a beautiful life all over again. However impossible they might be, in the end it’s just dreams that fuel life. Everyone makes it through the toughest times dreaming of something — a distant beacon that pulls them ahead.
People who are driven to give up their lives, that is, who commit suicide, are ones who have lost all hope. They see no light at the end of the tunnel, no way to rebuild their lives. You could call them cowardly, foolish, whatever. But the reason is always that. And that’s why, it is truly sad when you have to accept fate and give up your dream. As American poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “For of all sad wo­rds of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It mi­ght have been!’”
Of course, the death of one dream won’t necessarily drive you to the arms of death itself. And that’s because we live with not one but a million dreams in our heart. That, perhaps, is the thing that keeps us alive — the other dreams that still might come true!