Michael Ian Black Quotes

If I had known what it would be like to have it all - I might have been willing to settle for less.

Upon the whole, therefore, she found what had been sometimes found before, that an event to which she had looked forward with impatient desire, did not, in taking place, bring all the satisfaction she had promised herself.

I should have been smart enough to stay happy. But my ambition ruled my life.

I don't like setting goals - I don't like to be disappointed.

Doing stuff never feels as good as you hope it will feel.

What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring.

That in all these worldly Things, that a Man pursues with the greatest Eagerness and Intention of Mind imaginable, he finds not half the Pleasure in the actual Possession of them, that he proposed to himself in the Expectation.

More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.

I want to have it all.

It's hard to be ambitious if you're content, isn't it?

I hope I don't get driven to the point where, to be honest, I'm never satisfied. I hope there's some part of me that can be content.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

I've learned that getting what you want gives you a pretty high batting average, and leaves you plenty to struggle for.

We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams.

When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed.

I have been absolutely hag-ridden with ambition. If I could wish to have anything in the world it would be to be free of ambition.

I'm actually not a particularly negative person, but I feel like most things are better when they're not actualized. The motivation that comes from wanting something is so much more driving of people than actually getting it.

The best thing that can come with success is the knowledge that it is nothing to long for.

Success is getting and achieving what you want. Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.

After you get what you want you don't want it.

I don't think success arrives and you're suddenly happy. It's not like that. If people think that they'll be very disappointed.

Of Adam and Eve: They had what they wanted. That they did not like it when they got it does not alter the fact that they certainly got it.

Some people will always be disappointed.

In the big picture, few of our careers live up to the dreams we nursed when we were young. In fact, one underside of success is that it's nearly always penultimate, and so every accomplishment merely raises the bar.

When I finally got there, to where I thought was the top, I wasn't doing what I was doing in the beginning. I was not happy.