And who knows (there is no saying with certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which mankind is striving lies in this incessant process of attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing to be attained, which must always be expressed as a formula, as positive as twice two makes four, and such positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of death.
While if you stick to consciousness, even though the same result is attained, you can at least flog yourself at times, and that will, at any rate, liven you up.
This honest purpose you have been pleased to think I have
attained: and to say the truth, it is likeliest to be
attained in books of this kind; for an example is a kind of picture, in which virtue becomes, as it were, an object of sight, and strikes us with an idea of that loveliness, which Plato asserts there is in her naked charms.
They attained the summit with some toil, but found, instead of a level, or rather undulating plain, that they were on the brink of a deep and precipitous ravine, from the bottom of which rose a second slope, similar to the one they had just ascended.
In the afternoon of the second day, the travellers attained one of the elevated valleys locked up in this singular bed of mountains.
And as soon as it was attained another aim would immediately present itself, replacing its predecessor.
He was surprised at the facility with which he attained such happiness.
Not, indeed, that their weapons retained a higher degree of perfection than theirs, but that they exhibited unheard-of dimensions, and consequently
attained hitherto unheard-of ranges.
And when a hazy conception of this ideal was
attained, it was only by a further effort that the question of the teachableness of virtue could be resolved.
If he describes the impossible, he is guilty of an error; but the error may be justified, if the end of the art be thereby
attained (the end being that already mentioned), if, that is, the effect of this or any other part of the poem is thus rendered more striking.
The general who has
attained a responsible post must be careful to study them.
Nor will it be a sufficient excuse to say that the chief object well-ordered governments have in view when they permit plays to be performed in public is to entertain the people with some harmless amusement occasionally, and keep it from those evil humours which idleness is apt to engender; and that, as this may be
attained by any sort of play, good or bad, there is no need to lay down laws, or bind those who write or act them to make them as they ought to be made, since, as I say, the object sought for may be secured by any sort.
attained - achieved or reached; "the actual attained achievement test score"