Quotes about ambition

"Very few people are ambitious in the sense of having a specific image of what they want to achieve. Most people's sights are only toward the next run, the next increment of money."

Bardwick, Judith M. on ambition
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"Ambition -- it is the last infirmity of noble minds."

Barrie, Sir James M. on ambition   

"All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind."

Beecher, Henry Ward on ambition   

"Ambition. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead."

Bierce, Ambrose on ambition   

"Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them."

Bonaparte, Napoleon on ambition
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"What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me."

Browning, Robert on ambition   

"'Tis not what man does which exalts him, but what man Would do!"

Browning, Robert on ambition   

"Ambition is not what man does... but what man would do."

Browning, Robert on ambition   

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

Browning, Robert on ambition   

"The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes."

Bruyere, Jean De La on ambition   

"Ambition can creep as well as soar."

Burke, Edmund on ambition   

"Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top."

Burton, Robert on ambition   

"He who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below."

Byron, Lord on ambition   

"As falls the dew on quenchless sands, blood only serves to wash ambition's hands."

Byron, Lord on ambition
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"The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves."

Casson, Herbert N. on ambition
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"Big results require big ambitions."

Champy, James on ambition
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"When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank."

Cicero, Marcus T. on ambition   

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"The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory."

Cicero, Marcus T. on ambition
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"Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end."

Colton, Charles Caleb on ambition   

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"A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires."

Conrad, Joseph on ambition
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"I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go."

Cook, James R. on ambition   

"The passion of self-aggrandizement is persistent but plastic; it will never disappear from a vigorous mind, but may become morally higher by attaching itself to a larger conception of what constitutes the self."

Cooley, Charles Horton on ambition   

"I want to work with the top people, because only they have the courage and the confidence and the risk-seeking profile that you need."

Cutler, Laurel on ambition   

"Ambition is a Dead Sea fruit, and the greatest peril to the soul is that one is likely to get precisely what he is seeking."

Dahlberg, Edward on ambition   

"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."

Dali, Salvador on ambition
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"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

Danielson, C. Archie on ambition
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"Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals."

Denham, Sir John on ambition
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"It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them."

Eliot, George on ambition
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"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on ambition
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"Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds."

English, Thomas Dunn on ambition   

"Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. Its appetite grows keener by indulgence and all we can gratify it with at present serves but the more to inflame its insatiable desires."

Franklin, Benjamin on ambition   

"The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery."

Goldsmith, Oliver on ambition   

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom."

Grossart, Angus on ambition
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"Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible."

Hoffer, Eric on ambition
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"Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly."

Horace on ambition   

"I shall strike the stars with my unlifted head."

Horace on ambition   

"Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions."

Hume, David on ambition   

"He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage."

Johnson, Samuel on ambition   

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution."

Johnson, Samuel on ambition   

"We grow small trying to be great."

Jones, Eli Stanley on ambition
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