Ambition

"Ambition is the last refuge of the failure."

"I see, but cannot reach, the height That lies forever in the light."

"At nos non imperium neque divitias petimus, quarum rerum causa bella atque certamina omnia inter mortales sunt, sed libertatem, quam nemo bonus nisi cum anima simul amittit."

"I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years "Be successful, be successful, be successful" as opposed to "Be great, be great, be great". There's a qualitative difference."

"On the summit see, The seals of office glitter in his eyes; He climbs, he pants, he grasps them! At his heels, Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends, And with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down, And wins them, but to lose them in his turn."

"Vestigia nulla retrorsum."

"If any man stopped and asked himself whether he’s ever held a truly personal desire, he’d find the answer. He’d see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He’s not even struggling for material wealth, but for the second-hander’s delusion—prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can’t say about a single thing: this is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me. Then he wonders why he’s unhappy."

"Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue; to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest heart."

"Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping."

"Vain the ambition of kings Who seek by trophies and dead things To leave a living name behind, And weave but nets to catch the wind."

"Nor strive to wind ourselves too high For sinful man beneath the sky."

"By low ambition and the thirst of praise."

"They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem."

"Nil mortalibus arduum est: Cœlum ipsum petimus stultitia."

"Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes; The glorious fault of Angels and of Gods."

"There are very few philosophers and artists who are absolutely detached from ambition and respect for power, from "people of position." And among those who are more delicate or more sated, snobism replaces ambition and respect for power in the same way superstition arises on the ruins of religious beliefs."

"The money that we possess is the instrument of liberty, that which we lack and strive to obtain is the instrument of slavery. Therefore I hold fast to that which I have, and desire nothing. .... It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living."

"A narcissist, for example, inspired by the homage paid to great painters, may become an art student; but, as painting is for him a mere means to an end, the technique never becomes interesting … The result is failure and disappointment, with ridicule instead of the expected adulation. … All serious success in work depends upon some genuine interest. … Consequently, the man whose sole concern with the world is that is shall admire him is not likely to achieve his object."

"Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition."

"But when a miser thinks of nothing but gain or money, or when an ambitious man thinks of nothing but glory, they are not reckoned to be mad, because they are generally harmful, and are thought worthy of being hated. But, in reality, Avarice, Ambition, Lust, &c., are species of madness, though they may not be reckoned among diseases."

"Full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition."

"“Nothing but ambition, nothing but the desire to get on, that's all there is in his soul,” she thought; “as for these lofty ideals, love of culture, religion, they are only so many tools for getting on.”"

"Who can hope for nothing should despair of nothing."

"Yesterday’s dreams became today’s steps."

"Prima enim sequentem, honestum est in secundis, tertiisque consistere."

"On what strange stuff Ambition feeds!"

"Il gran rifiuto."

"But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land."

"For all may have, If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave."

"Sublimi feriam sidera vertice."

"All sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority, otherwise called ambition."

"Glory ought to be the consequence, not the motive, of our actions; and although it happen not to attend the worthy deed, yet it is by no means the less fair for having missed the applause it deserved."

"Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things To low ambition and the pride of Kings."

"Ambition is the grand enemy of all peace."

"I am not unambitious. I am just too ambitious for what you call ambitions."

"In classical cultures, an ascended class had to justify itself before those now below in the social structure. But the culture revolution of our time has eliminated this need for class- as well as self-justification. Nevertheless, those below still seek to emulate the ascendant social class, without being convinced of its superiority."

"When you reached the age of reason, I secured you from the influence of human prejudice; when your heart awoke I preserved you from the sway of passion. Had I been able to prolong this inner tranquillity till your life's end, my work would have been secure, and you would have been as happy as man can be; but, my dear Emile, in vain did I dip you in the waters of Styx, I could not make you everywhere invulnerable; a fresh enemy has appeared, whom you have not yet learnt to conquer, and from whom I cannot save you. That enemy is yourself. Nature and fortune had left you free. You could face poverty, you could bear bodily pain; the sufferings of the heart were unknown to you; you were then dependent on nothing but your position as a human being; now you depend on all the ties you have formed for yourself; you have learnt to desire, and you are now the slave of your desires. Without any change in yourself, without any insult, any injury to yourself, what sorrows may attack your soul, what pains may you suffer without sickness, how many deaths may you die and yet live! A lie, an error, a suspicion, may plunge you in despair."

"The need of success … might have made me strive to say what might please the multitude, rather than what was true and useful, and instead of a distinguished author which I might possibly become, I should have ended in becoming nothing but a mere scribbler."

"The highest form of vanity is love of fame."

"I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels."

"The poor man’s son ... devotes himself for ever to the pursuit of wealth and greatness. To obtain the conveniencies which these afford, he submits in the first year, nay in the first month of his application, to more fatigue of body, and more uneasiness of mind, than he could have suffered through the whole of his life from the want of them. ... He makes his court to all mankind; he serves those whom he hates, and is obsequious to those whom he despises. Through the whole of his life he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a real tranquillity that is at all times in his power."

"Ambition is an idol on whose wings Great minds are carry'd only to extreme; To be sublimely great, or to be nothing."

"Wisdom is corrupted by ambition, even when the quality of the ambition is intellectual. For ambition, even of this quality, is but a form of self-love."

"To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; and to forgo even ambition when the end is gained — who can say this is not greatness?"

"When we are beginning to live, then we are dying. There is, therefore, nothing more profitless than ambition."

"The First thing that strikes a traveler in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to emerge from their original condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society. No Americans are devoid of a yearning desire to rise, but hardly any appear to entertain hopes of great magnitude or to pursue very lofty aims. All are constantly seeking to acquire property, power, and reputation."

"The people ... have marred themselves by imitation of their inferiors. They have taken the sceptre of the Prince."

"Ambition is the death of thought."

"Too low they build who build beneath the stars."

"The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine village passed A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice A banner with the strange device, Excelsior!"