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The man who seeks one thing in life and but one
May hope to achieve it before life is 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.

— Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton Lucile (1860)

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Ambition

More quotes by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can.

Chronicles and Characters (1868)

There is a pleasure which is born of pain.

The Wanderer (1859)

Those true eyes
Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise
The sweet soul shining through them.

Lucile (1860)

O be very sure
That no man will learn anything at all,
Unless he first will learn humility.

Chronicles and Characters (1868)

That man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own.

Chronicles and Characters (1868)

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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: Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.