'Tis not what man does which exalts him, but what man Would do!
A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward.
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.
A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?
All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.
Ambition — it is the last infirmity of noble minds.
Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.
Ambition can creep as well as soar.
Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. Its appetite grows keener by indulgence and all we can gratify it with at present serves but the more to inflame its insatiable desires.
Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.
Ambition if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.
Ambition is a Dead Sea fruit, and the greatest peril to the soul is that one is likely to get precisely what he is seeking.
Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme; to be sublimely great or to be nothing.
Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.
Ambition is not a vice of little people.
Ambition is not what man does… but what man would do.
Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.