a man's reach should exceed his grasp
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An English literature major at Brown University in Rhode Island, Paterno was a voracious reader whose favorite sayings included Robert Browning's "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
From Chicago Tribune ● Jan. 23, 2012
The text of that whole poem is found in the line Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp.
From Robert Browning: How to Know Him by William Lyon Phelps
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s heaven for?
From Browning and the Dramatic Monologue by S. S. (Samuel Silas) Curry
Robert Browning put this truth into the mouth of Andrea del Sarto in one of the strongest lines in all English verse, "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp."
From Socialism: Positive and Negative by Robert Rives La Monte
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?
From Browning and the Dramatic Monologue by S. S. (Samuel Silas) Curry
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
