An ambitious man can get along much better when he is not hampered by a wife and family, or by friends who hold him back. The quotation comes from Rudyard Kipling’s poem, The Winners, which he describes as a ‘heretical song’. Here is part of the first verse:
A friend at a pinch is a friend indeed,
But a fool to wait for the laggard behind.
Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.