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... there is a native baseness in the ambition which seeks beyond its desert, that never shows more conspicuously than when, no matter how, it temporarily gains its object.

— William Gilmore Simms

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Ambition

More quotes by William Gilmore Simms

The only rational liberty is that which is born of subjection, reared in the fear of God and the love of man.

Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance, and the vain silent.

It should console us for the fact that sin has not totally disappeared from the world, that the saints are not wholly deprived of employment.

There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.

The only true source of politeness is consideration.

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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: William Gilmore Simms (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.