We aim at the ideal, and fail. I try
To be concise, and end in being obscure.

Cf. J’évite d’étre long, et je deviens obscur.—Boileau, L’Art Poétique 1, 66; and, Crede mihi labor est non levis, esse brevem.—Oweni, Epigrammata i. 168. The latter part of the quotation is said to have been humorously repeated by Thomas Warton on his snuffing owt, when he would have snuffed, his candle.