I heard David Norris, the garrulous cut-glass accented independent candidate for the Irish Presidency, use this assertion from Beckett.

In some way, it's more revealing of the candidate than of Beckett himself; there's a self importance and a conceit seeping through, which makes me thing Norris might be a liability rather than an asset to Ireland.

Nevertheless, it's the comment itself that matters: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better".