--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: To higher or lower ends, they [the…" description: "\"To higher or lower ends, they [the majority of mankind] move too often with something of a sad countenance, with hurried and ignoble gait, becoming, un..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/walter-pater-9808_ambition_to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majorit_2030769.jpg" --- # To higher or lower ends, they \[the majority of mankind\]… ![“To higher or lower ends, they [the majority of mankind] move too often with something of a sad countenance, with hurried and ignoble gait, becoming, unconsciously, something like thorns, in their anxiety to bear grapes; it being possible for people, in the pursuit of even great ends, to become…” quote by Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/walter-pater-9808_ambition_to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majorit_2030769.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/walter-pater-9808_ambition_to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majorit_2030769.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/walter-pater-9808_ambition_to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majorit_2030769.jpg) > “To higher or lower ends, they \[the majority of mankind\] move too often with something of a sad countenance, with hurried and ignoble gait, becoming, unconsciously, something like thorns, in their anxiety to bear grapes; it being possible for people, in the pursuit of even great ends, to become themselves thin and impoverished in spirit and temper, thus diminishing the sum of perfection in the world, at its very sources.” [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Pursuing lofty goals can unintentionally make people harsh and spiritually depleted. **In simple terms:** Great aims may corrupt spirit. Key Takeaway Guard against becoming overly rigid in ambition. Themes ambition spiritual health humanity Mood contemplative cautionary Type philosophical ethical When to use this quote - career advancement - political activism - artistic creation - leadership - philosophical study Key Concepts ethical integrity self-care Questions to Reflect On - What values protect your inner richness? - How can you pursue goals without losing humanity? A Different Perspective Overemphasis on outcomes can erode compassion and depth. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Ambition](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ambition/) [Anxiety](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anxiety/) [Bears](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bears/) [Mankind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mankind/) [Nature of man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature-of-man/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Perfection](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/perfection/) [Pursuit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pursuit/) [Spirit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/spirit/) [Temper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/temper/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/i-will-no-longer-wound-myself-with-the-thoughts-and-questions-that/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [“You smell like the roses. I smell like the thorns.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-reiss/you-smell-like-the-roses-i-smell-like-the-thorns/) [C.D. Reiss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-reiss/) > [ The Presidency, even to the most experienced politicians, is no bed of roses; and \[Zachary\] Taylor like others, found thorns within it. No human… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-lincoln/the-presidency-even-to-the-most-experienced-politicians-is-no-bed-of/) [Abraham Lincoln](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-lincoln/) > [“Some people are like thorns. But you have to let them be thorns, because thorns can't turn into petals. The trick is not letting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-joybell-c/some-people-are-like-thorns-but-you-have-to-let-them-be-thorns/) [C. JoyBell C](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-joybell-c/) > [“Who should be like thorns? The one who grows flowers amidst predators!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siya-sejal/who-should-be-like-thorns-the-one-who-grows-flowers-amidst-predators/) SIYA SEJAL > [These are just memories, which are like thorns.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hqlinestumblr/these-are-just-memories-which-are-like-thorns/) HQLinesTumblr > [Never ask a trader if he is profitable: you can easily see it in his gesture and gait.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nassim-nicholas-taleb/never-ask-a-trader-if-he-is-profitable-you-can-easily-see-it-in-his/) [Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nassim-nicholas-taleb/) > [You can do anything if you have enthusiasm.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ford/you-can-do-anything-if-you-have-enthusiasm/) [Henry Ford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ford/) > [A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high full of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rapaport/a-beautiful-girl-can-make-you-dizzy-like-you-ve-been-drinking-jack/) [Michael Rapaport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rapaport/) > [I stepped from plank to plank So slow and cautiously; The stars about my head I felt, About my feet the sea. I knew…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-dickinson/i-stepped-from-plank-to-plank-so-slow-and-cautiously-the-stars-about/) [Emily Dickinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-dickinson/) > [I wrestle my fears with every big decision I make. Ultimately, maybe all that wrestling does is make you sick of your own thoughts,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miranda-july/i-wrestle-my-fears-with-every-big-decision-i-make-ultimately-maybe/) [Miranda July](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miranda-july/) > [Some young people do not sufficiently understand the advantages of natural charms, and how much they would gain by trusting to them entirely. They…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-de-la-bruyere/some-young-people-do-not-sufficiently-understand-the-advantages-of/) [Jean de la Bruyere](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-de-la-bruyere/) > [Of all animals, the outward form of the Lion is the most striking ; his look is bold and confident; his gait proud; and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-pinnock/of-all-animals-the-outward-form-of-the-lion-is-the-most-striking-his/) William Pinnock > [A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/a-man-is-known-by-the-books-he-reads-by-the-company-he-keeps-by-the/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [When his veering gait And every motion of his starry train Seem governed by a strain Of music, audible to him alone.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-wordsworth/when-his-veering-gait-and-every-motion-of-his-starry-train-seem/) [William Wordsworth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-wordsworth/) ## More by Walter Pater > [A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-counted-number-of-pulses-only-is-given-to-us-of-a-variegated/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curiously-testing-new-opinions/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [One of the most beautiful passages of Rousseau is that in the sixth book of Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/one-of-the-most-beautiful-passages-of-rousseau-is-that-in-the-sixth/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/for-art-comes-to-you-proposing-frankly-to-give-nothing-but-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/every-moment-some-form-grows-perfect-in-hand-or-face-some-tone-on-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/not-to-discriminate-every-moment-some-passionate-attitude-in-those/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art: that they shall excite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-certain-strangeness-something-of-the-blossoming-of-the-aloe-is/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The younger, certainly, had to the full that charm of a constitutional freshness of aspect which may defy for a long time extravagant or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-younger-certainly-had-to-the-full-that-charm-of-a-constitutional/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/books-are-a-refuge-a-sort-of-cloistral-refuge-from-the-vulgarities-of/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [The base of all artistic genius is the power of conceiving humanity in a new, striking, rejoicing way, of putting a happy world ofits…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-base-of-all-artistic-genius-is-the-power-of-conceiving-humanity/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“art is self-sufficient and need serve no moral or political purpose”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/art-is-self-sufficient-and-need-serve-no-moral-or-political-purpose/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for, after all, habit is relative to a stereotyped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/in-a-sense-it-might-even-be-said-that-our-failure-is-to-form-habits/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The essence of humanism is that belief of which he seems never to have doubted, that nothing which has ever interested living men and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-essence-of-humanism-is-that-belief-of-which-he-seems-never-to/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A very intimate sense of the expressiveness of outward things, which ponders, listens, penetrates, where the earlier, less developed consciousness passed lightly by, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-very-intimate-sense-of-the-expressiveness-of-outward-things-which/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [That sense of a life in natural objects, which in most poetry is but a rhetorical artifice, was, then, in Wordsworth the assertion of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/that-sense-of-a-life-in-natural-objects-which-in-most-poetry-is-but-a/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) [Explore all 69 Walter Pater quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## More Ambition quotes > [Ambition drives you on, ability certainly helps, but the fickle finger of fate and luck are great things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fergus-henderson/ambition-drives-you-on-ability-certainly-helps-but-the-fickle-finger/) [Fergus Henderson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fergus-henderson/) > [One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jessye-norman/one-needs-more-than-ambition-and-talent-to-make-a-success-of-anything/) [Jessye Norman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jessye-norman/) > [I just think my own ambition would not allow me to sit on the gifts that my creator had given me. And so that's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janelle-monae/i-just-think-my-own-ambition-would-not-allow-me-to-sit-on-the-gifts/) [Janelle Monae](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janelle-monae/) > [A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/a-man-s-worth-is-no-greater-than-the-worth-of-his-ambitions/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I'm hungry and ambitious.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julen-lopetegui/i-m-hungry-and-ambitious/) [Julen Lopetegui](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julen-lopetegui/) > [“I was ambitious and desperate to direct my first film, so I capitulated and blew it. Never again. Never fucking again.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-ferguson/i-was-ambitious-and-desperate-to-direct-my-first-film-so-i/) [Craig Ferguson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-ferguson/) > [I was always attracted most to joining City, and I am pleased to be at such a good club with such a big ambition…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edin-dzeko/i-was-always-attracted-most-to-joining-city-and-i-am-pleased-to-be-at/) [Edin Dzeko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edin-dzeko/) > [Work towards your goal and dont watch the post size,its either they hate,or like you.there is no room for both sides.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaac-buabeng/work-towards-your-goal-and-dont-watch-the-post-size-its-either-they/) [Isaac Buabeng](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaac-buabeng/) > [“But young men have not only this frivolous ambition of being thought masters of execution, inciting them on the one hand, but also their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/but-young-men-have-not-only-this-frivolous-ambition-of-being-thought/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I almost never have a plan for myself... I'm not ambitious in that way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martha-plimpton/i-almost-never-have-a-plan-for-myself-i-m-not-ambitious-in-that-way/) [Martha Plimpton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martha-plimpton/) > [I play for high stakes and given an audience - there is no act too daring or too noble.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winston-churchill/i-play-for-high-stakes-and-given-an-audience-there-is-no-act-too/) [Winston Churchill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winston-churchill/) > [There's nothing worse than a leader who lacks ambition.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/there-s-nothing-worse-than-a-leader-who-lacks-ambition/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [If i can't even protect my captain's dream, then whatever ambition i have is nothing but talk..](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zoro/if-i-can-t-even-protect-my-captain-s-dream-then-whatever-ambition-i/) [Zoro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zoro/) > [It may seem unattainable but if you put actions, your heart and your mind into it, you will prevail.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/london-mond/it-may-seem-unattainable-but-if-you-put-actions-your-heart-and-your/) [London Mond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/london-mond/) > [Obligation is what's leading us to toward successful, and what keeps us moving towards the future.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wazim-shaw/obligation-is-what-s-leading-us-to-toward-successful-and-what-keeps/) [Wazim Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wazim-shaw/) [Browse all 4,601 Ambition quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ambition/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "To higher or lower ends, they [the majority of mankind] move too often with something of a sad countenance, with hurried and ignoble gait, becoming, unconsciously, something like thorns, in their anxiety to bear grapes; it being possible for people, in the pursuit of even great ends, to become themselves thin and impoverished in spirit and temper, thus diminishing the sum of perfection in the world, at its very sources.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Walter Pater" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majority-of-mankind-move-too-often/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Ambition" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majority-of-mankind-move-too-often/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/walter-pater-9808_ambition_to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majorit_2030769.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/walter-pater-9808_ambition_to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majorit_2030769.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/883/walter-pater-9808_ambition_to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majorit_2030769.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“To higher or lower ends, they [the majority of mankind] move too often with something of a sad countenance…” — Walter Pater", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Walter Pater", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "To higher or lower ends, they...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majority-of-mankind-move-too-often/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/to-higher-or-lower-ends-they-the-majority-of-mankind-move-too-often/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```