Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

Here may we reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell.
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Here may we reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell.
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.

A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

The great refusal.
[It., Il gran rifiuto.]

The great refusal.
[It., Il gran rifiuto.]

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.

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

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

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to
the second or even the third rank.
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When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to
the second or even the third rank.
[Lat., Prima enim sequentem, honestumn est in secundis,
tertiisque consistere.]