William Shakespeare on Ambition

“I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, And falls on the other.”

“The noble Brutus Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious; If it were so, it was a grievous fault; And grievously hath Cæsar answered it.”

“Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me. Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition. By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?”

“Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk! When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound; But now, two paces of the vilest earth Is room enough.”

“'Tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend.”