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Wisdom is corrupted by ambition, even when the quality of the ambition is intellectual. For ambition, even of this quality, is but a form of self-love…

— Henry Taylor

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Ambition

More quotes by Henry Taylor

The world knows nothing of its greatest men.

Philip van Artevelde (1834)

An unreflected light did never yet
Dazzle the vision feminine.

Philip van Artevelde (1834)

Conscience is, in most men, an anticipation of the opinions of others.

The Statesman (1836)

The hope, and not the fact, of advancement, is the spur to industry.

The Statesman (1836)

He who gives only what he would as readily throw away gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice.

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