"O sacred hunger of ambitious minds And impotent desire of men to reign, Whom neither dread of God, that devils binds, Nor laws of men, that commonweals contain, Nor bands of nature, that wild beasts restrain, Can keep from outrage and from doing wrong, Where they may hope a kingdom to obtain. No faith so firm, no trust can be so strong, No love so lasting then, that may enduren long."
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Compare: — Auri sacra fames. — Accursed hunger for gold. — Virgil, Aeneid (19 BCE), Book III, line 57 (Loeb translation by H. Rushton Fairclough)
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The Faerie Queene
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