Motivational Quotes

Ambition

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

- Johnson, Samuel

Best Quotes about 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

I shall strike the stars with my unlifted head.

Horace

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

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

Walpole, Horace

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

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

Taylor, Sir Henry

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

Otway, Thomas

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

Browning, Robert

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Lubbock, Sir John

10.

Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme; to be sublimely great or to be nothing.

Southey, Robert

11.

There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves.

Stanley, Arthur P.

12.

He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.

Lao-Tzu

13.

Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.

Hoffer, Eric

14.

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

Johnson, Samuel

15.

If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest.

Syrus, Publilius

16.

Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.

Denham, Sir John

17.

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

Lilly, William

18.

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

19.

Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.

Swift, Jonathan

20.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

Pope, Alexander

21.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

Joubert, Joseph

22.

Ambition never comes to an end.

Kenko, Yoshida

23.

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.

English, Thomas Dunn

24.

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

25.

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

Browning, Robert

26.

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

Bierce, Ambrose

27.

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

28.

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.

Horace

29.

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

Browning, Robert

30.

A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.

La Bruyere, Jean De

31.

Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.

Scott, Sir Walter

32.

We grow small trying to be great.

Jones, Eli Stanley

33.

When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.

Kaunda, Kenneth

34.

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

35.

When ambition ends, happiness begins.

Proverb, Hungarian

36.

Ambition -- it is the last infirmity of noble minds.

Barrie, Sir James M.

37.

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

38.

Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment. [The Root Of The Righteous]

Tozer, A. W.

39.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

Danielson, C. Archie

40.

If you have a great ambition, take as big a step as possible in the direction of fulfilling it. The step may only be a tiny one, but trust that it may be the largest one possible for now.

Mcafee, Mildred

41.

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

Wilde, Oscar

42.

A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward.

Nathan, George Jean

43.

I had no ambition to make a fortune. Mere money-making has never been my goal, I had an ambition to build.

Rockefeller, John D.

44.

Every child has great ambitions. As he grows, he is bombarded by negative suggestions -- you can't do this; you can't do that; be careful; look for security, and so on. Year by year, he experiences the realities of life, and his ambitions fade away. Figuratively speaking, most children die by the time they reach their adulthood.

Sinha, Shall

45.

Hasty climbers have sudden falls.

Proverb, Italian

46.

If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms.

Miller, Henry

47.

Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Twain, Mark

48.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

Quinet, Edgar

49.

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.

50.

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.