If you have renounced the world outwardly and wear the monk's cowl or the nun's robe, you would be right in regarding ambition as a sin. But if you still live in the world and have renounced it inwardly, it would not be wrong to work like those who are ambitious and so fill a more useful and more powerful role in society.

-- Notebooks Category 6: Emotions and Ethics > Chapter 7: Miscellaneous Ethical Issues > # 2