ASPIRATION

Related Subjects: Ambition, Fame, Zeal

1. To bliss unknown my lofty soul aspires,
   My lot unequal to my vast desires.—J. ARBUTHNOT, Gnothi Seaton

2. What I aspired to be,
   And was not, comforts me.—BROWNING, Rabbi Ben Ezra
   

3. 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do!—BROWNING, Saul
   

4. Better have failed in the high aim, as
   Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed,—
   As, God be thanked, I do not!—BROWNING, The Inn Album
   

5. Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
   Or what's a heaven for?—BROWNING, Andrea del Sarto
   

6. It is not to taste sweet things, but to do noble and true things, and vindicate himself under God's heaven as a God-made man, that the poorest son of Adam dimly longs.—CARLYLE
   

7. It . . . appears to me that our aspirations are rooted in our animal impulses, and that our animal impulses flower out into moral passions, poetry, and science.—IRWIN EDMAN, I Believe
   

8. There is no sorrow I have thought more about than that,—to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet to fail.—GEORGE ELIOT
   

9. It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.—GEORGE ELIOT
   

10. A banner with the strange device,
    Excelsior!—LONGFELLOW, Excelsior
    

11. He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.—MENCIUS
    

12. Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.—MICHELANGELO
    

13. Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.—MILTON, Tractate of Education
    

14. The mere aspiration is partial realization.—ANNA CORA MOWATT
    

15. High honor, high rank, which I have been desiring, today in my eye give no impression, and what I hope is to become a real man and to resign myself to things without grief, and when I come back to my native country I want to be near my great teacher and want to help the poor and the suffering and give rest to my old mother so she can go in peace out of this world.—NOGUCHI, Eckstein: Noguchi
    

16. This race desires the infinite, it thirsts for it, and pursues it at all costs, beyond the tomb—beyond hell itself.—RENAN
    

17. We know what we are, but know not what we may be.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

18. Let this suffice, by this conceive the rest,
    He should, he could, he would, he did the best.—ROBERT SOUTHWELL, Look Home
    

19. To be what we are, and to be­come what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.—STEVENSON, Familiar Studies of Men and Books

20. I held it truth, with him who sings
    To one clear harp in divers tones,
    That men may rise on steppingstones
    Of their dead selves to higher things.—TENNYSON, In Memoriam
    

21. Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly towards an object, and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them,—that it was a vain endeavor?—THOREAU
    

22. The heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high.—THOREAU
    

23. The world dreams of things to come, and then in due season arouses itself to their realization.—ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD
    

24. Too low they build who build beneath the stars.—EDWARD YOUNG, Night Thoughts