Once upon a time I was a child. And once upon a time this book and this paper were but a thought in a head and a tree in the wood.
Madness string 1655
'If only'... if only. Does it go the other way? Is that what people mean, 'only if'? Only if it had transpired thusly, things would have been better... but so many other factors could have improved them; they just didn't.