quotations about ambition
There are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
BARACK OBAMA
Inaugural Address, Jan. 20. 2009
Is there an unselfish ambition? A tamed ambition? A sanctified ambition? I would like to think so, though it seems doubtful. Nonetheless -- thank you, ambition, for being in my life.
DIANE GLANCY
"Dreams Are Dangerous; They Uncover Your Bones", Ambition: Essays by members of The Chrysostom Society
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
JAMES MADISON
The Federalist, Feb. 6, 1788
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 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 displeases when it has been sated ... having reached the peak, it aspires to descend.
PIERRE CORNEILLE
Cinna
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.
ELVIS PRESLEY
attributed, "The many faces of ambition -- is it a virtue or vice?", The Wichita Eagle, February 14, 2016
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
Ambition is the ecclesiastical lust.
DANIEL NOONAN
The Passion of Fulton Sheen
A man without ambition is worse than dough that has no yeast in it to raise it.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
The ambitious sacrifices all to what he terms honor, as the miser all to money.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
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 an uncomfortable companion many times. He creates a discontent with present surroundings and achievements; he is never satisfied but always pressing forward to better things in the future. Restless, energetic, purposeful, it is ambition that makes of the creature a real man.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
The (Southwest Texas State) College Star, June 19, 1929
Ambition hath but two steps: the lowest, blood; the highest, envy.
W. LILLY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Never doubt what small men will do for great power.
PAOLO BACIGALUPI
The Windup Girl
Few are more unhappy than those who have great ambition, but little energy to urge it into activity.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
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, 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 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