EMULATION

Beaumont, Francis
Emulation is a noble passion.—It is enterprising, but just withal.—It keeps within the terms of honor, and makes the contest for glory just and generous; striving to excel, not by depressing others, but by raising itself.

Without emulation we sink into meanness, or mediocrity, for nothing great or excellent can be done without it.

Balzac, Honore de
Emulation admires and strives to imitate great actions; envy is only moved to malice.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George
The emulation of a man of genius is seldom with his contemporaries. The competitors with whom his secret ambition seeks to vie are the dead.

Colton, Caleb C.
Emulation has been termed a spur to virtue, and assumes to be a spur of gold.—But it is a spur composed of baser materials, and if tried in the furnace will be found wanting.

Emulation looks out for merits, that she may exalt herself by a victory; envy spies out blemishes, that she may have another by a defeat.

Hall, Joseph
Emulation, in the sense of a laudable amoition, is founded on humility, for it implies that we have a low opinion of our present, and think it necessary to advance and make improvement.

Johnson, Samuel
Where there is emulation, there will be vanity; where there is vanity, there will be folly.

Macdonald, George
Emulation is the devil-shadow of aspiration.—To excite it is worthy only of the commonplace vulgar schoolmaster, whose ambition is to show what fine scholars he can turn out, that he may get the more pupils.

Richter, Jean Paul
There is a long and wearisome step between admiration and imitation.