Ambition
Ambition is an idol, on whose wings
Great minds are carried only to extreme;
To be sublimely great or to be nothing. Southey
O cursed ambition, thou devouring bird,
How dost thou from the field of honesty
Pick every grain of profit or delight,
And mock the reaper’s toil! Havard
What is ambition? ‘Tis a glorious cheat.
Angels of light walk not so dazzlingly
The sapphire walls of heaven. Willis
Dream after dream ensues.
And still they dream that they shall still succeed,
And still are disappointed. Cowper
Ambition’s like a circle in the water,
Which never ceases to enlarge itself,
‘Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought. Shakespeare
Accurst ambition.
How dearly have I bought you? Dryden
Airy ambition, soaring high. Sheffield
Why dost thou court that baneful pest, ambition? Potter
— brave thirst of fame his bosom warms. Churchill
Ah! Curst ambition! To thy lures we owe,
All the great ills that mortals bear below. Teckell
The dropsy’d thirst of empire, wealth or fame. Nugent
The glorious frailty of the noble mind. Hoole
No bounds his headlong, vast ambition knows. Rowe
Ambition is like love, impatient
Both of delays and rivals. Denham
——– ambition, idly vain;
Revenge and malice swell her train. Penrose
Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself. Shakespeare
What’s all the gaudy glitter of a crown?
What but the glaring meteor of ambition,
That leads the wretch benighted in his errors,
Points to the gulf and shines upon destruction? Brooke
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