stepping-stone

A path two feet deep had been worn into the stepping-stone at the entrance.

And full well Joan realized that in this big venture of hers the old, except as a stepping-stone, was separated forever.

Education is not only compulsory, but it is the only stepping-stone to high preferment in the civil service of the government.

The episcopal chair was often but the stepping-stone to the scaffold.

Once, twice, three times Courney had been a stepping-stone in the swept and garnished pathways of battle.

Now it was demanded of her by a man who, having promised to serve her, had merely used her as a stepping-stone to power.

Van Tiefel was but a stepping-stone; he was not made for the desk of a counting-house.

He used the law merely as a stepping-stone to what he considered a more attractive condition in the political world.

Who knows but what this may be a stepping-stone into a successful career?

A harsher course might have led to ruin—the milder one was the stepping-stone to the woolsack and a peerage.