Ambition vs Vanity - What's the difference?
ambition | vanity |
(uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
* Burke
(countable) An object of an ardent desire.
A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
(uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
(obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
* Milton
To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
That which is vain, futile, or worthless; that which is of no value, use or profit.
*
Excessive pride in or admiration of one's own abilities, appearance or achievements.
A dressing table used to apply makeup, preen, and coif hair. The table is normally quite low and similar to a desk, with drawers and one or more mirrors atop. Either a chair or bench is used to sit upon.
Emptiness.
(obsolete) Any idea, theory or statement that is without foundation.
* It is a vanity to say that if two stones are dropped from a tower, the heavier will experience the greater acceleration.
* Francis Bacon
In obsolete terms the difference between ambition and vanity
is that ambition is the act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing while vanity is any idea, theory or statement that is without foundation.As nouns the difference between ambition and vanity
is that ambition is eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people while vanity is that which is vain, futile, or worthless; that which is of no value, use or profit.As a verb ambition
is to seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.ambition
English
Noun
(en-noun)- My son, John, wants to be a firefighter very much. He has a lot of ambition .
- the pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres
- My ambition is to own a helicopter.
- [I] used no ambition to commend my deeds.
Quotations
(English Citations of "ambition")Verb
(en verb)- Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. — Trumbull.
External links
* * ----vanity
English
(wikipedia vanity)Noun
(vanities)- To help the matter, the alchemists call in many vanities out of astrology.