quotations about ambition
Like a goddess on her azure hill, the star of my ambition, the mistress of my dream; a thing apart, that we can worship, but not touch; a wild desire, that, in the madness of the thought, soars higher in its dignity, and leaves me weeping in the dust.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
"Ambition", Imogen and Other Poems
Ambitious princes value inherited kingdoms not so much as conquered provinces.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
With the ambitious, the failure of one expedient is the suggestion of another; but with the irresolute, defeat usually occasions abandonment of purpose.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
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.
EDWARD DAHLBERG
Alms for Oblivion
Ambition spells the difference between those who are content to let random circumstances determine their journey through life, and those who would like to have a say in where they end up.
RACHEL BRIDGE
Ambition: Why It's Good to Want More and How to Get It
Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back.
BEN JONSON
Catiline
There was no more dangerous kind of madman than one who devoted a good brain and a courageous heart to unhealthy ambitions.
MICHAEL MOORCOCK
The City in the Autumn Stars
Once set fire to the train of a man's ambition, and it will never cease to burn until it reaches the glittering "Catharine Wheel" by which he has been dazzled, or, failing that, has scorched the luckless aspirant to a cinder.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
If a person holds no ambitions in this world, he suffers unknowingly. If a person holds ambitions, he suffers knowingly, but very slowly.
ALAN LIGHTMAN
Einstein's Dreams
Ambition is a germ which should produce an intense desire to make the world a better place in which to live, and should not be used for purely personal accumulations.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Ambition", Human Life From Many Angles
They that soar too high, often fall hard.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Ambition is a "lucifer" applied to a barrel of gunpowder, the explosion of which, where it succeeds in blowing one man into a niche, dashes twenty to atoms.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
Never permit restless ambition. Whenever you feel the force of ambition, direct your mind at once in a calm, determined manner upon that which you really want to accomplish in life. Make this a daily practice, and you will steadily train all your faculties and powers not only to work for the realization of that ambition, but become more and more efficient in that direction.
CHRISTIAN LARSON
Your Forces and How to Use Them
If your ambition is very strong, and is directed toward something definite, every action of your mind, every action of your personality, and every action of your faculties will become constructive.
CHRISTIAN LARSON
Your Forces and How to Use Them
I am unsettled by ambition. I am settled by ambition. I am torn with ambition. I am certain about ambition. Ambition is a blessing. Ambition is a curse.
DIANE GLANCY
"Dreams Are Dangerous; They Uncover Your Bones", Ambition: Essays by members of The Chrysostom Society
Ambition knows no gorge but the grave.
CARL SEELBACH
attributed, Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages
Never doubt what small men will do for great power.
PAOLO BACIGALUPI
The Windup Girl
Ambition is but Avarice on stilts and masked.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
I blame Alexis Carrington and JR Ewing. Then again, Gordon Gecko didn't help matters. The deliciously awful main characters of 1980's television shows such as Dynasty and Dallas, and films such as Wall Street, came to personify the idea that ambition is a dirty word, a short-hand way of describing ruthless, selfish, amoral people mercilessly trampling over each other in their efforts to seize power, money, status or all three.... And over the years the image has stuck. Indeed even the words used to describe ambition are harsh -- raw, naked, burning ambition anyone? The problem is that this cartoon image of ambition is not what true ambition is about at all. In reality, ambition is simply the desire to make the most of your potential to achieve something special.
RACHEL BRIDGE
"Why Ambition Should No Longer Be a Dirty Word", Huffington Post, February 26, 2016
Ambition is a moot point when inequality remains so entrenched in modern society.
DAWN FOSTER
Lean Out