Quotes / Wanting Is Better Than Having

Film — Animated

So when the race is won
And there's nothing left to do
Alone again,
But where are you?

— Graham Gouldman, "Love's Not For Me", Animalympics

Literature

"Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it — namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain."

— The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

"You really don't understand, do you? I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything. What then?"

— Coraline

927. Remember that half the joy of achievement is in the anticipation.

— Life's Little Instruction Book, Volume II

"The tree was clearly taking their bait, or they were taking its bait, or both. Either way, here it was, the adventure had arrived. There was a time when this had been his most passionate hope, when it would have ravished him with happiness. Why now, when it was actually happening, did the seductions of Fillory feel so crude and unwanted? Its groping hands so clumsy? He thought he'd left this feeling behind long ago in Brooklyn, or at least at Brakebills. How could it have followed him here, of all places? How far did he have to run? If Fillory failed him he would have nothing left! A wave of frustration and panic surged through him. He had to get rid of it, break the pattern!"

— The Magicians

Live-Action TV

Robin: You're the one who always comes through for me, Ted. The one who's there for me. Maybe I'm making a mistake.
Ted: Wait, what are you saying?
Robin: Maybe I should be marrying you. [...] Ted...I should be with you.
Future Ted: (narrating) There it was. The words that some deep, dark part of me always wanted to hear. But it's funny. Once you actually hear those words out loud...
Ted: (present) I don't want to hear that.
Robin: We should get out of here. You and me, right now. We'll move to Chicago, we'll start a new life, it'll be painful at first, but hell, I can root for the Blackhawks.
Ted: Stop, stop, you're just saying this because you're scared! I am not your future, Barney is.
Robin: Shouldn't I be with a guy that finds me my locket? The guy who steals me the blue French horn? I mean, look me in the eye and tell me why shouldn't I be with that guy?
Ted: Because I'm not that guy anymore.

— How I Met Your Mother, "The End of the Aisle"

J.D.'s narration: I think that the problem with most people who want what they can't have is that, when they actually get the thing they covet, they don't want it anymore. But not this guy.
Elliot: Well, Dr. Dorian, you have me. You finally have me.
J.D.'s thoughts: Oh, my God! I DON'T WANT HER!

— Scrubs, "My Fault"

"Stonn, she is yours. After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical... but it is often true."

— Spock, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Amok Time"

Music

After you get what you want, you don't want it
If I gave you the moon,
You'd grow tired of it soon.
You're like a baby
You want what you want when you want it
But after you are presented
With what you want, you're discontented.
You're always wishing and wanting for something
When you get what you want
You don't want what you get
And tho' I sit upon your knee
You'll grow tired of me
'Cause after you get what you want
You don't want what you wanted at all.

— Irving Berlin, "After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It"

When you've gotten what you want
There's nothing left to want

— Joywave, "It’s A Trip!"

Visual Novels

"Some things are beautiful because they cannot be obtained."

— Gilgamesh, Fate/stay night

Web Video

It all comes back to, again, the ravening beast that is hype culture. A beast that seems—from my observations over the past few years—to have only gotten bigger and more terrible, despite customers getting burnt by misleading PR and overhyped products time and time again. Did you learn nothing from Titanfall? From WatchDogs? From all the other games that you were whipped up into a piranha-like frenzy over, only to finally get them in your hands and realize that—at best—you had yet another video game; not the second coming of Jesus arsehole-ing Christ.

— Jimquisition on fan responses to Final Fantasy XV getting delayed.

"I had five mates, before I joined the Yolsh. All gone now. And the one I really wanted, well, the thrill is in the chase, never the capture, and she was too fast for me."

— Shuck, Satellite City

Western Animation

Peter: (walks in) Hey, I'm home. I got groceries.
Lois: You what?
Peter: Yeah, I was driving past there and we were out of some stuff, so I—(Lois tackles him)
Lois: You listen to me, you son of a bitch! I've got one thing in this lifetime! ONE THING! (punches Peter in the face)
Peter: Y-You always say I never do anything around here!
Lois: (teeth clenched) Yeah, I like saying that more than I like you doing things!

— Family Guy, "Vestigial Peter"

Miscellaneous

"We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified."

— Aesop

"Everest, it turned out, was never more beautiful than looking up from below."

— Julian Guthrie, The Billionaire and the Mechanic

"The honey doesn’t taste so good once it has been eaten; the goal doesn’t mean so much once it has been reached; the reward is not so rewarding once it has been given. If we add up all the rewards in our lives, we won’t have very much. But if we add up all the spaces between the rewards, we’ll come up with quite a bit. [ . . . ] Each time a goal is reached, it becomes Not So Much Fun, and we’re off to reach the next one, then the next one, then the next. That doesn’t mean the goal doesn’t count. They do, mostly because they cause us to go through the process, and it’s the process that makes us wise, happy, whatever. [ . . .] What could we call the moment before we eat the honey? Some call it anticipation, but we think it’s more than that. We could call it awareness. It is when we become happy and realize it, if only for an instant. By Enjoying the Process, we can stretch that awareness out so it’s no longer only a moment, but covers the whole thing. Then we can have a lot of fun."

— The Tao of Pooh

"There are two great tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want... the other is getting it."

— Oscar Wilde

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