When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.

When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.

Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

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.

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be read more

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,
Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows
A harvest of barren regrets.

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.

Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise.
By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies?
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Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise.
By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies?
Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.

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.]

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

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