If I had known what it would be like to have it all... I might have been willing to settle for less.
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Knowing the full experience of having everything might make me accept less.
- In plain terms
- Knowing the best could lower expectations.
- What can you take from it?
- Appreciate what you have without constantly comparing to an ideal.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When does settling become stagnation?
- How do you balance ambition and gratitude?
Another view
Sometimes aiming high drives progress.
More from Jane Wagner
All my life, I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.
Permalink to quote #6 Sometimes I feel like a figment of my own imagination.
Permalink to quote #8 It's my belief we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.
Permalink to quote #5
Related quotes
Nothing is miserable but what is thought so, and contrariwise, every estate is happy if he that bears it be content.
Ancius BoethiusAncius Boethius quote #5 The good or ill of man lies within his own will.
EpictetusEpictetus quote #6 An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.
William JamesWilliam James quote #24