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.]

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.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.rn

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.rn

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and read more

To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.

On what strange stuff Ambition feeds!

On what strange stuff Ambition feeds!

Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.

Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where read more

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

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.