hitch one's wagon to a star

1. Aim high, as in Bill's hitching his wagon to a star—he plans to be a partner by age thirty. This metaphoric expression was invented by essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1870.

Example Sentences

Now it is wireless telegraphy that is the ultimate fulfilment of what he saw,—the method that will reduce to practical realization his counsel to hitch one's wagon to a star, and "see his chores done by the gods themselves."

From Project Gutenberg

To hitch one's wagon to a star was to be, primarily, a plain person, to go in for truth, patriotism, fineness of soul, long hours of labor, little exercise and no vacations, pies and doughnuts, ugliness of physical surroundings, and squeaky feminine voices.

From Project Gutenberg

Now, however, I see the folly of attempting to hitch one's wagon to a star with harness that does not belong to it.

From Project Gutenberg