Motivational Quotes

Ambition

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

- Southey, Robert

Best Quotes about Ambition

Big results require big ambitions.

Champy, James

Ambition never comes to an end.

Kenko, Yoshida

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

Miller, Henry

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

Grossart, Angus

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

Otway, Thomas

I too must attempt a way by which I can raise myself above the ground, and soar triumphant through the lips of men.

Virgil

When ambition ends, happiness begins.

Proverb, Hungarian

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

Joubert, Joseph

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

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

Browning, Robert

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

17.

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Rogers, Kenny

18.

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.

19.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

20.

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

Hoffer, Eric

21.

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

Southey, Robert

22.

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.

23.

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

Browning, Robert

24.

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

Horace

25.

I shall strike the stars with my unlifted head.

Horace

26.

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

English, Thomas Dunn

27.

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

Scott, Sir Walter

28.

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

29.

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

Browning, Robert

30.

The person who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won't succeed; you must have a larger ambition. There is no mystery in business success. If you do each day's task successfully, and stay faithfully within these natural operations of commercial laws which I talk so much about, and keep your head clear, you will come out all right.

Rockefeller, John D.

31.

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

32.

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

Kaunda, Kenneth

33.

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

Barrie, Sir James M.

34.

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

Lilly, William

35.

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

Denham, Sir John

36.

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

Johnson, Samuel

37.

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

Swift, Jonathan

38.

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

39.

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

Wilde, Oscar

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

Bierce, Ambrose

42.

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

Walpole, Horace

43.

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

44.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

Danielson, C. Archie

45.

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

Syrus, Publilius

46.

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

47.

Hasty climbers have sudden falls.

Proverb, Italian

48.

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

Lao-Tzu

49.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

Pope, Alexander

50.

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.