Ambition

Ambition
Ambition
The undue craving for honor

Catholic Encyclopedia. . 2006.

Ambition
    Ambition
     Catholic_Encyclopedia Ambition
    The undue craving for honour. Anciently in Rome the candidates for office were accustomed to go about (ambire) soliciting votes. This striving for popular favour was spoken of as ambitio. Honour is the manifestation of a certain reverence for a person because of the worth or assemblage of good qualities which that person is deemed to have. The excessive desire of distinction is of course a sin, not because it is wrong in itself to wish to have the respect or consideration of others, but because it is assumed that this quest is conducted without proper regard to the mandates of sound reason. This deordination in the desire of, or search for, honour may come about chiefly in three ways.
    ♦ One may want this exhibition of homage for some merit which he really does not possess.
    ♦ A man may permit himself to forget that the thing or things, whatever they may be, which are thought to deserve the testimony of others, are not his in fee simple, but God's, and that the credit therefore belongs primarily to God.
    ♦ A person may be so absorbed in the display of esteem for, or deference towards, himself as to fail to employ the particular degree of excellence which has evoked it for the welfare of others (St. Thomas, Summa Theol., II-II, Q. cxxxi, Art. 1). Ambition as such is not accounted a mortal sin; it may become such either because of the means it uses to compass its object, as for instance, the simoniacal endeavour to obtain an ecclesiastical dignity, or because of the harm done to another. Ambition operates as a canonical impediment in the following circumstances. Those who take their elevation to a church dignity for granted, and, before receiving the requisite formal enabling notice of it, by some overt act demean themselves as if their election were an accomplished fact, are held to be ineligible. The bestowal of the office in this case is likewise considered invalid. Those who accept an election brought about by an abuse of the secular power are also declared ineligible (Corp. Jur. Can. in VI Decret., Bk. I, tit. vi, ch. v).
    JOSEPH F. DELANY
    Transcribed by W.S. French, Jr. Dedicated to Adrian W. Harmening, O.S.B.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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  • ambition — [ ɑ̃bisjɔ̃ ] n. f. • ambicion XIIIe; lat. ambitio 1 ♦ Désir ardent d obtenir les biens qui peuvent flatter l amour propre (pouvoir, honneurs, réussite sociale). « Les hommes commencent par l amour, finissent par l ambition » (La Bruyère). Il a de …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • ambition — AMBITION. s. f. Désir immodéré d honneur, de gloire, d élévation, de distinction. Grande ambition. Ambition déréglée. Ambition démesurée. Ambition sans bornes. Ambition insatiable. Avoir de l ambition.Ambition, se prend aussi en bonne part; mais… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française 1798

  • ambition — AMBITION. s. f. Desir excessif d honneur & de grandeur. Grande, desreglée, furieuse, horrible, execrable, pernicieuse ambition. avoir de l ambition. faire quelque chose par ambition. c est un homme sans ambition. plein d ambition. brusler d… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • ambition — UK US /æmˈbɪʃən/ noun ► [C] a strong wish to achieve a particular thing: ambition to do sth »After his heart attack, he abandoned his ambition to become CEO. achieve/fulfil/realize your ambition »He has already achieved his main ambition in life… …   Financial and business terms

  • ambition — ambition, aspiration, pretension mean strong desire for advancement. Ambition has personal advancement or preferment as its end; it may be praiseworthy but is sometimes inordinate {ambition for fame} {ambition to hold office} {Iambition to… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Ambition — Am*bi tion, n. [F. ambition, L. ambitio a going around, especially of candidates for office is Rome, to solicit votes (hence, desire for office or honor), fr. ambire to go around. See {Ambient}, {Issue}.] 1. The act of going about to solicit or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • ambition — Ambition, Ambitio, Ambitus. L homme duquel l ambition le rend mal heureux, Miser ambitionis. Quand on ne va plus que à ambition, ou autre chose, Emeritis stipendiis ambitionis. Tout va par ambition et dissimulation aujourd huy, Mores iam nostri… …   Thresor de la langue françoyse

  • Ambition — is the possession of motivation for power. Ambitious persons seek power either for themselves, for others, or to weild power over others in the name of an ideal.When used to seek an ideal, ambition develops a close relationship to… …   Wikipedia

  • ambition — (n.) mid 14c., from M.Fr. ambition or directly from L. ambitionem (nom. ambitio) a going around, especially to solicit votes, hence a striving for favor, courting, flattery; a desire for honor, thirst for popularity, noun of action from pp. stem… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Ambition — »‹beruflicher› Ehrgeiz«: Das Substantiv ist im 16. Jh. über gleichbed. frz. ambition aus lat. ambitio entlehnt. Das lat. Substantiv bedeutet eigentlich »das Herumgehen«, dann im speziell politischen Sinn »das Herumgehen bei den Wählern in der… …   Das Herkunftswörterbuch

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