So, coming to an understanding of its basis, he saw vividly his own hopelessly unachieved intimacy, his attempts so driven back upon themselves, yet gaily denying defeat, his battering at walls which had been built-not at all, as he had supposed, of abstraction, but of entire perception.
"The Furnace"
Rose Macaulay
Happy Sparta, meanwhile, in the justice and modesty of Agesilaus, and in the deference he paid to the laws of his country; who, immediately upon receipt of his orders, though in the midst of his high fortune and power, and in full hope of great and glorious success, gave all up and instantly departed, "his object unachieved," leaving many regrets behind him among his allies in Asia, and proving by his example the falseness of that saying of Demostratus, the son of Phaeax, "That the Lacedaemonians were better in public, but the Athenians in private."
"Plutarch-Lives-of-the-noble-Grecians-and-Romans"
Clough, Arthur Hugh
The exploit in which no one will consent to go first, remains unachieved.
"On Compromise"
John Morley