Mistletoe.... I climb to greatness.
Reading edition
The Mistletoe is a creeping plant which grows on the tops of the tallest trees. The proud oak is its slave, and nourishes it with his own substance. The Druids paid a kind of adoration to it, as the emblem of a weakness that was superior to strength: they regarded the tyrant of the oak as equally formidable to men and gods.
’Tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder, Whereto the climber upwards 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. Shakspeare.
He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; He who surpasses or subdues mankind Must look down on the hate of those below. Though high above the sun of glory glow, And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow Contending tempests on his naked head, And thus reward the toils which to those summits led. Byron.
Ye gods, it doth amaze me, A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world, And bear the palm alone. Shakspeare.
On the summit see, The seals of office glitter in his eyes; He climbs,—he pants,—he grasps them. At his heels, Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends, And with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down, And wins them, but to lose them in his turn. Cowper.
If any man must fall for me to rise, Then seek I not to rise. Another’s pain I choose not for my good. A golden chain— A robe of honour is too poor a prize To tempt my hasty hand to do a wrong Unto a fellow man. This life hath wo Sufficient, wrought by man’s satanic foe; And who that hath a heart would dare prolong Or add unto the sorrows of a soul That seeks some healing balm to make it whole? My bosom owns the brotherhood of man; From God and truth a renegade is he Who scorns a poor man in his poverty, Or on his fellow lays a supercilious ban. MacKellar.