One Tree Hill: Dan Scott

What troubles me is how I've made mistakes. How I lie awake at night keeping company with regret. Not being the man I intended to be. What troubles me.

Somewhere along the line, I started hurting the people I care most about, and I can't figure out how to stop.

We all choose a path in life. Sometimes you never look back. Sometimes life forces you to.

Happiness doesn't come cheap. If it did, we'd all be smiling.

School was never my strong suit either. It's good we're both handsome.

You're my sons and I failed you. I'm sorry for that, for so many other things, but I'm proud that each of you have become the kind of man I could never be. You're good men and you're good brothers. Don't let the world change that.

[voiceover] It's been said that the saddest thing a man will ever face is what might have been. But what of a man whose faced with what was? Or what may never be? Or what can no longer be? Choosing the right path is never easy. It's a decision we make with only our hearts to guide us. But sometimes we find our way to something better. Sometimes we fight through the regret and remorse of our mistakes, our malice and our jealousy and the shame we feel for not being the people we were meant to be. And that's when we find our way to something better. Or when something better finds its way to us.

I have done some horrible things, unforgivable things. Lucas didn't need a father, he had one. He had the person who helped him bridge the shame of my cowardice. Everything I've touched has diminished: Deb's life, Nathan's talent. Keith-

That's not true, it's not true. I just wanna...wanna go back, you know. I just wanna go back. I... I wanna take that little kid that I used to be and just grab him and shake him and say you stop, stop, JUST STOP! I wanna wake up from this nightmare, you know, I wanna breathe again. I wanna, I wanna breathe again, Karen. Can you help me breathe? Can you help me quite these voices in my head that tell me that I've lost you? 'Cause I know I have... If only I would've stayed with you.

Lucas: Kill or be killed.
Dan: It's the way of the world.

Don't be so quick to judge me, Lucas. It's easy to have all the answers from a distance, but everybody makes decisions they regret. Me, your mother, Keith. But we learn to live with it. It's part of life.

True. But there's also a chance that hell could freeze over.

You should take a job application... now that you're unemployed.

I should apologize... but I won't.

Can't blame a man for trying to hold on.

Well maybe you could find out in the phone book. Look under 'w' for whore. But wait she's not that smart so look under 'h'.

Somewhere along the line, I started hurting the people I care most about, and I can't figure out how to stop.

No one should determine your future but you.

You know what they say, we marry our mothers.

Trust me, don't take anything for granted.

I'm Dan Scott. Local businessman, school board member, and murderer. Family first, that's my motto.

Sometimes the truth is all we have.

Speak from your heart and don't forget to smile.

I murdered his uncle, among other things.

They say that truth is the best indication against slander. But what is the truth?

Believe nothing. Just because a wise man said it or you read it in a book, words of divine origin, or simply because your mother told you, it doesn't make it true. Believe only what you yourself can test and judge to be true.

Attraction is not a choice. It just is.

Falling in love is the easiest thing you're ever going to do. It's most exciting thing, it's the most powerful thing. That's why falling out of love hurts like hell, but falling in love, there's nothing better. It's the best it ever gets.

Falling in love is easy. But a lifetime of love, now there's a miracle.

Relationships aren't always easy. I should know, I'm on my second marriage.

Divorce doesn't just happen. And relationships don't just end in an instance.

We all wanted love. To be happy. So why aren't we? Because we've become experts at sabotaging our own happiness. Feeling like victims when in fact it's the choices we make. The bad habits, the vices. The inability to show love and compassion. These are the things that tear us down. We're no victims, we're assassins when it comes to love and happiness.

Step into the light and get yourself right.

Sometimes we fall short of the people we were meant to be. Sometimes people do things they are ashamed of. And usually after the guilt sets in, we make things worse. Sometimes people do funny things in the face of pressure and desperation. And the truth, well, the truth isn't absolute. And the truth can set you free.

Life is funny. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and it isn't fair.

It takes a con to know a con.

Turn your gaze inward and confess the truth inside of you.