The considerations one makes prior to choosing to do something (supposing these are considerations in order to make the optimal decision for one?s own good) have an effect on the impact of regret felt once said action has been completed. So I wonder: if there?s such a thing as anticipatory regret (you regret something before even doing it and then do it anyway), to what extent does this anticipation of regret weight on the regret you actually feel after completion of an action?
Regret depends on the information you had prior to making your decision ? if you were not aware of possible alternative courses of action, or factors you had no control over affected the decision [i.e. an unavoidable natural disaster] then perhaps the regret you feel is lesser ? I would think this to be rational, for you do not have the same weight of responsibility as you would if you had all your options laid out in front of you. The blame you might feel is lesser. You can experience more regret if you realize that you did not weigh your options correctly prior to the fact or if you did not realize the nuances of the decision about to be made - if you under-weigh regret prior to taking action. Thus, how implicated one is prior to action affects how much regret is eventually felt.

Go gentle into that good night?
Purity of heart may be to will one thing, but regret and remorse are biological necessities, and no simple matter. Memory is not a system of file retreival. In a sense memory does not exist at all, it is remanufactured each time through a vast fabric of reminders. Each reminder triggers others that assembled something like the original, but never quite the same (some psychologists insist that they can stimulate exact replication of original experience but do nothing to establish this claim other than to point to the remarkable certitude of this that accompanies it, but this is no more creditable a claim than the now discredited "retreived memory"). Nagging memories assure an extensive reconsideration that may adjust future behavior and, more pertinently, motivate reflection upon the character of one's values, and about the nature of one's place in the world and in course of one's life.
尼采总是出现，就像一枚坏硬币。他只是鹦鹉学语地重复着古代封建礼教，即在比武中输掉的一方不怨恨胜利的一方得到的战利品，或者是赌徒的礼教，即输掉的一方没有吸引力。但这个概念在道德伦理或法律上毫无意义。在一场靠运气或靠武力的游戏中，胜利者并不认为自己赢得了奖品，而失败者也没有理由认为自己赢得了奖品，他们只是幻想着能拥有那些没有赢得的东西。这是胜利者对失败者合理主张的无情压制的教条。还记得罗姆尼竞选中关于“怨恨政治”的那句话吗?那些在世界上占了上风的人可以一致行动，就像有效地协调阴谋一样。那些资源减少或在真正意义上发出有效声音的国家通过一致行动削弱了它们的主张。因此，世界上的精英拥有一种自然的社会和政治优势，而这种优势与优点无关。
Go gentle into that good night? The issue of remorse and regret has tentacles reaching into every nook and cranny of life and memory, and to present it as if it were a simple topic activates those tentacles while obscuring them and their pernicious work on us.

Regret is an essential element to the cultivation of virtue.

“你不能两全其美”是一种错误的假设，认为想要撤销一些后悔的事情。我们的假设是，如果我们改变过去，从而放弃当下我们喜欢的东西，那么我们就不会生活在另一个同样好或更好的当下。在剧中的例子中，救了他的阿姨就意味着没有他的儿子，但这并不意味着他就没有一个他所珍惜的儿子。我们文化中根深蒂固的假设是，我们无法为自己创造积极的结果，我们所拥有的一切，我们所珍惜的都是意外。相反，我们珍惜的积极结果只是无限可能的积极结果之一。所以后悔就走了:改变过去的梦想，放弃你所拥有的，其他的美好就会到来!