There isn't a king or a merchant prince in the whole world that I envy, for I always knew I was born to be a child of destiny and that I was never meant to wring my living from detestable, low, degrading, mean and ordinary kinds of business.
But I am happy. And happiness, I have decided, is a noble ambition.
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes Beholds his hereditary skies.
Man was mark'd A friend in his creation to himself, And may, with fit ambition, conceive The greatest blessings, and the highest honors Appointed for him, if he can achieve them The right and noble way.
A person’s first duty, a young person’s at any rate, is to be ambitious, and the noblest ambition is that of leaving behind something of permanent value.
Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls.
I'd like to add some beauty to life," said Anne dreamily. "I don't exactly want to make people KNOW more... though I know that IS the noblest ambition... but I'd love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me... to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn't been born.
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise. That last infirmity of noble mind. To scorn delights, and live laborious days.
