The student must remember, for his consolation†that his failures are almost as important to the cause of scienceand tothosewhofollow himinthesameroad, as his successes. It is much to know what we cannot do in any given directionöthe first step, indeed, toward the accomplishment of what we can do.

-Agassiz, (Jean) Louis (Rodolphe)
  Geological Sketches.

Sometimes it seems the onlyaccomplishment my education ever bestowed on me was the ability to think in quotations.

-Drabble, Margaret
  A Summer Birdcage, ch.1.

The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowlyand deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius.Theresulting performance, though lessinspiring, is far more predictable.

-Galbraith,John Kenneth
  The New Industrial State.

I do not regard the knighthood as a social accomplishment.

-Naipaul, Sir V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad)
  Quoted in'Kingdom of Naipaul' by Zoe«   Heller in the Independent on Sunday Review, 28 Mar.

Either still I find Some imperfection in the chosen theme, Or see of absolute accomplishment Much wanting, so much wanting, in myself, That I recoil and droop, and seek repose In listlessness from vain perplexity, Unprofitably travelling towards the grave.

-Wordsworth,William
^1805  The Prelude, bk.1, l.261^7 (published1850).