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Wilt thou debase the heart which God refined?
No; let thy heaven-taught soul to heaven aspire,
To fancy, freedom, harmony, resigned;
Ambition's groveling crew forever left behind.

— James Beattie The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius (1771)

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Ambition

More quotes by James Beattie

Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free;
Patient of toil, serene amidst alarms;
Inflexible in faith, invincible in arms.

The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius (1771)

Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.

The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius (1771)

To the pure soul by Fancy's fire refined,
Ah, what is mirth but turbulence unholy,
When with the charm compared of heavenly melancholy.

The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius (1771)

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where Fame’s proud temple shines afar?

The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius (1771)

How sweet the words of truth breathed from the lips of love!

All James Beattie quotes →

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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.

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