“Low ambition and the thirst of praise.”

Source: Table Talk (1782), Line 591.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Low ambition and the thirst of praise." by William Cowper?
William Cowper photo
William Cowper 174
(1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist 1731–1800

Related quotes

William Cowper photo

“Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man,
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue.”

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 235.

Joseph Addison photo
Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“Ambition
Is like the sea wave, which the more you drink
The more you thirst—yea—drink too much, as men
Have done on rafts of wreck—it drives you mad.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

The Cup, Act i, Scene 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Henry Francis Lyte photo

“Teach me. Lord, my true condition;
Bring me childlike to Thy knee;
Stripped of every low ambition,
Willing to be led by Thee.”

Henry Francis Lyte (1793–1847) Anglican priest, hymn-writer and poet

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 329.

George Gordon Byron photo
Victor Hugo photo
Paddy Ashdown photo
Miranda July photo

“Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

The Shared Patio (2005)
Context: Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is really worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.

Kóbó Abe photo

“Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.”

Source: The Woman in the Dunes

Related topics