Related:

• Ambition's like a circle on the water, which never ceases to enlarge itself, 'till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.
  -- William Shakespeare...
• Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off
  And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind....
• O, what authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
  -- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Much Ado about Nothing -- Act iv, Sc. 1...
• Dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
  And I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow....
• O, now, for ever Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
  Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars That make ambition virtue!...
• O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
  Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!...
• The eye sees not itself but by reflection, by some other things. -- William Shakespeare
• Who does i' the wars more than his captain can Becomes his captain's captai
  and ambition, The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss, Than gain which darkens him....