Open Writing

Ambition—ardent desire for distinction; aspiration (to be, to do); object of such desire

A new academic year began at University College, London. I went out to our sports ground at Shenley for our first hockey match of the season. The omens were encouraging. Our First XI were usually pretty good, but the Second XI tended to be mediocre. This year we were pleasantly surprised when our Second XI chalked up a 14-0 victory, and apparently eleven of these goals had been scored by one person. He was immediately promoted to the First XI, where he proved to be a great success. He was particularly good at scoring goals. He used to aim at the top corner of the net, and could do this effortlessly by perfect timing. Gradually we learnt that hockey was not his main sport. He was reputed to be a promising cricketer and there were whispers he might be playing for Leicestershire in the summer, and perhaps one day for England. You might already have guessed who this was—David Gower. He went on to captain England and score more runs in test cricket than any other Englishman. At our time of knowing him none of us classified him as an overtly ambitious person. He was pleasant and unassuming, merely someone needing an outlet for his considerable talents.

Looking through the material of this section there seem to be two main views on ambition—one in which there is an ardent desire for distinction (and possibly the presence of selfishness)—and the other, which is merely the outworking of particular gifts and talents, exercised for the common good, and as such, sources of hope.

A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 28:20

For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?
Mark 8:36

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
James 3:16

Ambition makes people diligent.
Proverb

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Oxford University Press, 1971, page 37.

.. God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 'Sonnets from the Portuguese', xxvi. 14, The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Henry Froude, 1904, page 323

A man without ambition is worse than dough that has no yeast in it to raise it.
Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, Charles Burnet & Co., 1887, page 8

Ambition is the spur that makes man struggle with destiny. It is heaven's own incentive to make purpose great and achievement greater.
Anon.

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, House of the Seven Gables, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965, page 206

If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.
Andre Maurois, The Art of Living, The English Universities Press, 1940, page 206

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?
William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, III. ii. 440

He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men, hath a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he that plots, to be the only figure among ciphers, is the decay of an whole age.
Francis Bacon, 'Of Ambition', in The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Clarendon Press, 1985, page 116

I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself, And falls on th'other.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, I. vii. 25

Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies? Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Alexander Pope, 'An Essay on Man', iv. 73, in The Poems of Alexander Pope, Methuen & Co., volume III—I, page 135

It is not at all necessary to be great, so long as we are in harmony with the order of the universe. Moral ambition has no pride; it only desires to fill its place, and make its note duly heard in the universal concert of the God of love.
Henri Frederic Amiel, Amiel's Journal, translated by Mrs Humphry Ward, Macmillan & Co., 1918, page 165

Unnumber'd suppliants crowd Preferment's gate, Athirst for wealth, and burning to be great; Delusive Fortune hears th'incessant call. They mount, they shine, evaporate and fall.
Samuel Johnson, 'The Vanity of Human Wishes', in Ttje Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, Yale University
Press, 1964, volume VI, 'Poems', page 95

The grand secret of enjoying yourself with a free heart is to get rid of ambition, rid of even the most trifling competitions with other poor devils. But we must have our pride; and we must have a very deep pride. We must have a pride in simply being ourselves and beyond any conceivable competition.
John Cowper Powys, Autobiography, Macdonald & Co. (Publishers), 1967, page 622

Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power, that avarice makes concerning wealth; she begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end. Ambition is, in fact, the avarice of power, and happiness herself is soon sacrificed to that very lust of dominion which was first encouraged only as the best mode of attaining it.
Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, William Tegg, 1866, page 7

... what is called ambition had no room or time to sprout. Ambitious people are forced—as one learns from reading their lives—to cut down rigidly upon their contemplative tendencies, to harden themselves against their momentary sensations. I lived for sensations; and have always, in my deepest heart regarded such a life as the only adequate return we can make to Nature for giving us birth! John Cowper Powys, Autobiography, Macdonald & Co. (Publishers), 1967, page 237

The true Ambition there alone resides, Where Justice vindicates, and Wisdom guides; Where inward dignity joins outward state; Our purpose good, as our achievement great; Where public blessings public praise attend; Where glory is our motive, not our end. Wouldst thou be famed? have those high acts in view Brave men would act, though scandal should ensue.
Edward Young, 'Love of Fame, the Universal Passion', vii. 175, in The Complete Works of Edward Young, William Tegg
and Co., 1854, volume I, page 408

... Ambition is a good thing, but I think that one may take it as one's aim only in things which one has set one's-self to achieve, has made the reason for one's existence. In anything else it's nonsense. The only essential is to live with ease; and moreover one must sympathize with one's fellow-creatures, and strive to win their sympathy in return. And if, indeed, one had no other determined aim, this would by itself more than suffice.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoievsky to his Family and Friends, translated by Ethel Colburn Mayne, Peter Owen, 1962, page 104

He who ascends to mountain tops, shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpassed or subdues mankind,
Must look down on the hate of those below.
Though high above the Sun of Glory glow,
And far beneath the Earth and Ocean spread,
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow
Contending tempests on his naked head,
And thus reward the toils which to those summits led.
Lord Byron, 'Childe Harold', canto III. xlv, in Ernest Hartley Coleridge, editor, The Poetical Works of lord Byron,
John Murray, 1905, page 191

Ambition is to the mind what the cap is to the falcon; it blinds us first, and then compels us to tower by reason of our blindness. But, alas! when we are at the summit of a vain ambition, we are also at the depth of real misery. We are placed where time cannot improve, but must impair us; where chance and change cannot befriend, but may betray us. In short, by attaining all we wish, and gaining all we want, we have only reached a pinnacle where we have nothing to hope, but everything to fear.
Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, William Tegg, 1866, page 8

They that soar too high, often fall hard; which makes a low and level dwelling preferable. The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds; and ambitious men, of the blast of fortune. They are most seen and observed, and most envied; least quiet, but most talked of, and not often to their advantage. Those builders had need of a good foundation, that lie so much exposed to weather. Good works are a rock that will support their credit; but ill ones, a sandy foundation, that yields to calamities. And truly they ought to expect no pity in their fall, who, when in power, had no bowels for the unhappy.
The worst of distempers; always craving and thirsty, restless and hated: a perfect delirium in the mind, unsufferable in success, and in disappointment most revengeful.
William Penn, Fruits of Solitude, A.W. Bennett, 1863, page 77