Ambition, in one respect, is like a singer's voice; pitched at too high a key, it breaks and comes to nothing.
An ambition to excel in petty things obstructs the progress to nobler aims.
In ambition, as in love, the successful can afford to be indulgent toward their rivals. The prize our own, it is graceful to recognize the merit that vainly aspired to it.
Neither love nor ambition, as it has often been shown, can brook a division of its empire in the heart.
Ambitious princes value inherited kingdoms not so much as conquered provinces.