Gentlemen with broad chests and ambitious intentions do sometimes disappoint their friends by failing to carry the world before them.
 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860). copy citation

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Author George Eliot
Source The Mill on the Floss
Topic gentleman intention
Date 1860
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6688/6688-h/6688-h.htm

Context

“Philip was so advanced in his studies, and so apt, that Mr Stelling could obtain credit by his facility, which required little help, much more easily than by the troublesome process of overcoming Tom’s dulness. Gentlemen with broad chests and ambitious intentions do sometimes disappoint their friends by failing to carry the world before them. Perhaps it is that high achievements demand some other unusual qualification besides an unusual desire for high prizes; perhaps it is that these stalwart gentlemen are rather indolent, their divinæ particulum auræ being obstructed from soaring by a too hearty appetite.” source