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“He’s here, of course, strictly through his own ambitious carelessness.”
“Prime flaws of youth, of course—but also its strengths, this carelessness and ambition.”

— Michael Shea Nifft the Lean (1982)

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More quotes by Michael Shea

Good soldiers stay alive by being unsentimental and having a quick eye for the main chance.

Nifft the Lean (1982)

Present action, though futile, is preferable to passive acceptance of such a fate as awaits us.

A Quest for Simbilis (1974)

The great in Evil, and the great in [Goodness|Good]]—both leave an immortal residue.

Nifft the Lean (1982)

Is it not unsettling to consider the blind unlikelihoods that shape one’s fate?

A Quest for Simbilis (1974)

While it is foolish to deny the dark around us, it is futile to exaggerate it.

Nifft the Lean (1982)

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Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.

Étienne de La Boétie Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

Emil Cioran The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.

Jean de La Bruyère Les Caractères (1688)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Michael Shea (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.