Ambition

Desire for honors is good when it includes recognitionthat what is truly honorable is from God, and that the honor itselfis ultimately to be referred to God. Now, the desire for honorswhich a man wishes for himself without referring them to God, issinful ambition.

Sinful ambition is opposed to the virtue ofmagnanimity, because the desire or love of honors, whichmagnanimity regulates, is manifested without regulation inambition.