No steps backward.
[Lat., Vestigia nulla retrorsum.]

No steps backward.
[Lat., Vestigia nulla retrorsum.]

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

You are rewarding a teacher poorly if you remain always a pupil.

You are rewarding a teacher poorly if you remain always a pupil.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, read more

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!

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

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

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by read more

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

On the summit see,
The seals of office glitter in his eyes;
He climbs, he pants, he read more

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.