quotations about ambition
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères
Ambition is only bad if it is an ambition for small things.
SCOTT CAIRNS
introduction, Ambition: Essays by members of The Chrysostom Society
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
Oh, it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them-- that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting.
LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY
Anne of Green Gables
Ambition is a moot point when inequality remains so entrenched in modern society.
DAWN FOSTER
Lean Out
Covetous ambition, thinking all too little which presently it hath, supposeth itself to stand in need of that which it hath not.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH
attributed, Day's Collacon
Ambition knows no gorge but the grave.
CARL SEELBACH
attributed, Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages
Ambition, in one respect, is like a singer's voice; pitched at too high a key, it breaks and comes to nothing.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Ambition is but Avarice on stilts and masked.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Ambition destroys the pleasures of the present in ardent aspirations after an imaginative future.
F. W. THOMAS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Moby Dick
Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back.
BEN JONSON
Catiline
The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Ambition is the fuel that holds the many opposing fragments of my life together. Ambition is a buffer zone. A war zone. All the contradictions that are within me.
DIANE GLANCY
"Dreams Are Dangerous; They Uncover Your Bones", Ambition: Essays by members of The Chrysostom Society
Ambition is a devouring fire, who can poise it? It is a wind, who can fathom it? It is an abyss, who is able to recount the sources and issues thereof?
N. CAUSSIN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Ambitions tend to remain undisturbed by realities.
FRANK HERBERT
Children of Dune
To appear unambitious amongst the ambitious is to invite loathing or fear. To be in the game, but not playing with intent to win, is to be the enemy.
JOSEPHINE HART
Damage
According to a British poll, you've only got a one in five chance of achieving your childhood career ambition. Which probably explains why you don't run into that many cowboys, princesses, or space rangers.
JAY LENO
The Tonight Show, Jun. 22, 2012
Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries.
MARY SHELLEY
Frankenstein
We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement.
LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY
Anne of Green Gables