It is only possible to succeed at second-rate pursuits- like becoming a prime minister or a millionaire, winning a war, seducing beautiful women, flying through the stratosphere or landing on the moon. First -rate pursuits, involving, as they must, trying to understand what life is about and trying to convey that understanding - inevitably result in a sense of failure. A Napolean, a Churchill, a Roosevelt can feel themselves to be successful, but never a Socrates, a Pascal, a Blake. Understanding is forever unattainable.

--Malcolm Muggeridge.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Malcolm_Muggeridge