quotations about ambition
Ambition is the ecclesiastical lust.
DANIEL NOONAN
The Passion of Fulton Sheen
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
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
Ambition is only bad if it is an ambition for small things.
SCOTT CAIRNS
introduction, 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 like choler; which is an humor that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh a dust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased, when things go backward; which is the worst property in a servant of a prince, or state.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Ambition", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Ambition is a moot point when inequality remains so entrenched in modern society.
DAWN FOSTER
Lean Out
Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Moby Dick
Selfish ambition is idolatry and self-worship.
DAN DUMAS
Live Smart: Preparing for the Future God Wants for You
Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme, to be sublimely great, or to be nothing.
T. SOUTHERN
attributed, Day's Collacon
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 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
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 destroys the pleasures of the present in ardent aspirations after an imaginative future.
F. W. THOMAS
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back.
BEN JONSON
Catiline
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
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
Ambition knows no gorge but the grave.
CARL SEELBACH
attributed, Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages
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