If at great things thou would'st arrive,
Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap,
Not difficult, read more

If at great things thou would'st arrive,
Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap,
Not difficult, if thou hearken to me;
Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand,
They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain,
While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

Big results require big ambitions.

Big results require big ambitions.

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we would storm
heaven itself in our folly.
[Lat., read more

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we would storm
heaven itself in our folly.
[Lat., Nil mortalibus arduum est:
Coelum ipsum petimus stultitia.]