yearning for greatness Quotes

Ambition is a passion, at once strong and insidious, and is very apt to cheat a man out of his happiness and his true respectability of character

Say what we will, we may be sure that ambition is an error. Its wear and tear on the heart are never recompensed.

Poets and writers who are in love with the superlative all want to do more than they can.

Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls.

To some extent, this urge to break out of the ordinary is present in every generation. Part of being young is desiring something beyond everyday life and a secure job, a yearning for something really truly greater. Is this simply an empty dream that fades away as we become older? No! Men and women were created for something great, for infinity. Nothing else will ever be enough.

Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it.

There is in all men a demand for the superlative, so much so that the poor devil that has no other way of reaching it attains it by getting drunk.