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Ambition Quotes

Browse 3325 quotes about Ambition.

Ambition Quotes

“He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.”

Fall Loss Position Higher Ambition Raises My Ambition Blinded

Author:Niccolo Machiavelli

“Like a goddess on her azure hill, the star of my ambition, the mistress of my dream; a thing apart, that we can worship, but not touch; a wild desire, that, in the madness of the thought, soars higher in its dignity, and leaves me weeping in the dust.”

Dream Desire Stars Higher Ambition Worship Dignity Madness Dust Hills Goddess Soar Leaving Me Mistress Weeping My Ambition Azure

Book:Imogen: And Other Poems

Source: Imogen: And Other Poems

“Guard, O my soul, against pomp and glory. And if you cannot curb your ambitions, at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously. And the higher you go, the more searching and careful you need to be.”

Ifs Needs Soul Higher Ambition Glory Careful Pursue My Soul Curb

Book:Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy

Source: Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy

“Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set. Then set your mark high, and step by step, even though it be by painful effort, by self-denial and sacrifice, ascend the whole length of the ladder of progress.”

Self Whole Remember Effort Steps Progress Sacrifice Higher Ambition Standards Mark Painful Denial Length Ladders Self-denial Higher Standards

Book:Christ's Object Lessons - Illustrated

Source: Christ's Object Lessons - Illustrated

“To higher or lower ends, they [the majority of mankind] move too often with something of a sad countenance, with hurried and ignoble gait, becoming, unconsciously, something like thorns, in their anxiety to bear grapes; it being possible for people, in the pursuit of even great ends, to become themselves thin and impoverished in spirit and temper, thus diminishing the sum of perfection in the world, at its very sources.”

People World Ends Moving Spirit Mankind Source Bears Becoming Higher Anxiety Ambition Perfection Majority Pursuit Temper Grapes Thorns Countenance Ignoble Gait

Book:The Works of Walter Pater

Source: The Works of Walter Pater

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”

Men Way Inspirational Mean Ideas Self Produce Higher Ambition Noble Compare Aspiration Aspire Vulgar My Ambition Noble Man Mean Man

Author:Marcus Aurelius

“The will to incessant creation is vulgar, betraying jealousy, envy, and ambition. Assuming that you are something, there is really nothing that you need to do-and yet you do a great deal. Above the "productive" man there is still a higher type.”

Men Needs Stills Deals Creation Type Higher Ambition Assuming Envy Productive Betray Vulgar Incessant Jealousy Envy

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“A mind always in contact with children and servants, whose aspirations and ambitions rise no higher than the roof that shelters it, is necessarily dwarfed in its proportions.”

Mind Children Higher Ambition Contact Servant Aspiration Proportion Shelter Roof

Book:History of woman suffrage

Source: History of woman suffrage

“Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, he belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambitions of our brighter minds. The way for people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing them away.”

People Way Mind Rights Effects Higher Ambition Training Gains Injustice Reasonable Distinction Throwing Apologizing Brighter Castes Belittle

Author:W. E. B. Du Bois

“But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a little while? Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to travel through time with no greater ambition than to find the next lovely meal? Or to learn how to speak a language for no higher purpose than that it pleases your ear to hear it? Or to nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favourite fountain? And then to do it again the next day?”

Source: Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything

“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.”

Life Doe Stills Ends Seems Interesting Higher Ambition Glad Life Changing Delightful Green Gables

Book:Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…

Source: Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…

“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.”

Mind May Self Passion Higher Ambition Disappear Conception Plastic Persistent Vigorous

Book:Human Nature and the Social Order

Source: Human Nature and the Social Order

“To me there never has been a higher source of honour or distinction than that connected with advances in science. I have not possessed enough of the eagle in my character to make a direct flight to the loftiest altitudes in the social world; and I certainly never endeavored to reach those heights by using the creeping powers of the reptile, who in ascending, generally chooses the dirtiest path, because it is the easiest.”

“The most important thing to remember about drunks is that drunks are far more intelligent than non-drunks- they spend a lot of time talking in pubs, unlike workaholics who concentrate on their careers and ambitions, who never develop their higher spiritual values, who never explore the insides of their head like a drunk does.”

“It is well for civilization that human beings constantly strive to gain greater and greater rewards, for it is this urge, this ambition, this aspiration that moves men and women to bestir themselves to rise to higher and higher achievement. Individual success is to be won in most instances by studying and diagnosing the kind of rewards human hearts seek today and are likely to seek tomorrow.”