Tao Te Ching

“Birds have wings to fly, fish fins to swim, wild beats feet to run and for feet there are traps, for fins nets, for wings arrows. But who know how dragons surmount wind and cloud into heaves? Today I have seen Lao Tzu and he is a dragon.”

— Confucius 孔丘 551 – 479 BCE via Witter Bynner, Shan Dao
(Kongzi, Kǒng Zǐ)
History's most influential "failure"