If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.

Maurois is pointing to the way hindsight and self-knowledge can revise our sense of “loss.” People often interpret an unmet ambition—an ungotten job, relationship, or recognition—as proof of deprivation. But if we examine our lives without the distortions of pride, envy, or social expectation, we may realize the object of desire was partly imagined: a symbol of status, a borrowed ideal, or a fantasy of happiness. The quote suggests that disappointment can be instructive, revealing what we truly value versus what we merely thought we should want. It also implies a consoling ethic: some failures are quiet deliverances from goals that were never authentically ours.