Tao Te Ching

“I know how birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run. But the runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked, and the flyer shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon—I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. Today I have seen Lao Tzu, and can compare him only to the dragon.”

— Confucius 孔丘 551 – 479 BCE via Legge
(Kongzi, Kǒng Zǐ)
History's most influential "failure"
from Life and Teachings of Confucius