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About this quote

What does it mean?
Ambition often serves as a refuge for those who have failed.
In plain terms
Failure sometimes hides behind ambition.
What can you take from it?
Examine whether ambition masks insecurity.

Where it applies

  • career planning
  • personal setbacks

Putting it to work

  • set realistic goals
  • reflect on motives

Questions to consider

  • When is ambition healthy?
  • How to differentiate ambition from avoidance?

Another view

Ambition can also drive genuine achievement.

More from Oscar Wilde

  1. Those whom the gods love grow young.

    Permalink to quote #127
  2. Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.

    Permalink to quote #129
  3. Even the disciple has his uses. He stands behind one's throne, and at the moment of one's triumph whispers in one's ear that, after all, one is immortal.

    Permalink to quote #126

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