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Lowliness is young ambition’s ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But… — William Shakespeare

Play · History (play) · Tragedy (play)

Lowliness is young ambition’s ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But, when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend.

William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar · 1599
★ 2.2
Provenance
Current citation
Shakespeare, William. "Julius Caesar." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 2, sc. 1.
Original citation
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. The Lord Chamberlain's Men, 1599, Globe Theatre, London, England, UK, act 2, sc. 1.

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To be or not to be—that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— No more—and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep— To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause.

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