Wouldn't that be much better expressed as something like "It's easier to do elegant optimizations in a high-level language", then? Finding the best algorithm to use is almost always the single best optimization you can do to a piece of code. And that certainly is easier to do in a higher level language.

On the other hand, the original quote seems to regard elegance and optimization as opposed. (And really gloss over the step of porting your elegant routines by hand to C!)