Little-known Anouilh play

GENERAL. The ideal, my friend, is the life-buoy. You're in the ocean, splashing about, doing your damndest not to drown, in spite of whirlpools and cross currents. The main thing is to do the regulation breast-stroke and if you're not a clod, never let the lifebuoy out of your sight. No one expects any more than that of you. . . .
SECRETARY. But does one ever reach the lifebuoy, General?
GENERAL. Never. But if your heart's in the right place, you never lose sight of it either. Fanatics who try a faster stroke to reach it at all costs, deluge everybody else and always finish up by drowning. . . . Do you see what I mean? . . .
SECRETARY. I am twenty years old, General. I would rather try to go fast and drown.

-Jean Anouilh, The Waltz of the Toreadors