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Ambition Quotes

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Ambition Quotes

“Ambition is frequently the only refuge which life has left to the denied or mortified affections. We chide at the grasping eye, the daring wing, the soul that seems to thirst for sovereignty only, and know not that the flight of this ambitious bird has been from a bosom or home that is filled with ashes.”

KnowsHas BeensSoulHomeSeemsEyeLeftAmbitionBirdFilledWingsAffectionFlightDeniedDaringAmbitiousAshesRefugeThirstSovereigntyBosomsGrasping
Book:Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside
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“Dombey and Son had often dealt in hides, but never in hearts. They left that fancy ware to boys and girls, and boarding-schools and books. Mr. Dombey would have reasoned: That a matrimonial alliance with himself must, in the nature of things, be gratifying and honourable to any woman of common sense. That the hope of giving birth to a new partner in such a house, could not fail to awaken a glorious and stirring ambition in the breast of the least ambitious of her sex.”

GivingHeartBookSchoolFunnyGirlHouseLeftSexCommonBoysFailingSonBirthAmbitionHumorousPartnersCommon SenseFancyGloriousBreastsAmbitiousAlliancesStirringBoy And GirlGiving Birth
Author:Charles Dickens
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“I had ambitions to set out and find, like an odyssey or going home somewhere, set out to find this home that I'd left a while back and couldn't remember exactly where it was, but I was on my way there. And encountering what I encountered on the way was how I envisioned it all. I didn't really have any ambition at all. I was born very far from where I'm supposed to be, and so, I'm on my way home, you know?”

KnowsWayHomeRememberLeftBornAmbitionMy WaySupposed To BeGoing HomeWay HomeOdyssey
Author:Bob Dylan
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“I am not part of that earlier Australian generation who set off on a deliberate search for fame and fortune in distant lands. My generation was the first that didn't need to. By the 1980's when I left home, our culture had grown deep enough and wide enough to encompass all but the most rarefied of ambitions.”

NeedsFirstsArtEnoughHomeCultureLeftGenerationsLandFameAmbitionFortuneWideDeliberateAustralianMy Generation
Book:Boyer Lectures 2011
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“But there is no substance under the things I have gathered together about me. I am hollow, and my structure of pleasures and ambitions has no foundation. I am objectified in them. But they are all destined by their very contingency to be destroyed. And when they are gone there will be nothing left of me but my own nakedness and emptiness and hollowness, to tell me that I am a mistake.”

TogetherLeftMy OwnPleasureMistakeGoneAmbitionFoundationStructureDestroyedSubstanceEmptinessDestinedHollowContingencyHollowness
Author:Thomas Merton
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“In the past we have always assumed that the external world around us has represented reality, however confusing or uncertain, and that the inner world of our minds, its dreams, hopes, ambitions, represented the realm of fantasy, and the imagination. These roles, it seems to me, have been reversed. The most prudent and effective method of dealing with the world around us is to assume that it is a complete fiction - conversely, the one small node of reality left to us is inside of our own heads.”

WorldMindHas BeensDreamRealitySeemsPastLeftImaginationFictionRolesFantasyAmbitionMethodAssumingRealmsUncertainConfusingPrudentInner World
Author:J. G. Ballard
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“Being a coach means giving your job 200% all the time and you're family is left on the side so I don't want to risk my family anymore just because I love football. I don't feel this ambition, I'm involved in many businesses and I want to live my own life, to see my daughters grow and want to see my family happy.”

WantGivingFeelsMeanJobsLeftGrowsSidesMy OwnRiskFootballInvolvedAmbitionDaughterMy FamilyCoachesMy DaughterMy Own LifeI Love Football
Author:Emmanuel Petit
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“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.”

IfsMenNeedsHeartLeftStarsRealizingSeaLandAmbitionMiracleHorseFinalsTalesFairyAccomplishedFairy TaleTrue Happiness
Book:Zorba the Greek
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“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”

MenWorldLifeBelieveHumansWellsHardDoneStoriesEvilLeftI BelieveKindnessAmbitionCleanHungerIllCaughtCrueltyDustGenerosityGood And EvilChipsEdenAvariceEast Of Eden
Author:John Steinbeck
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“There was no God in his heart, he knew; his ideas were still in riot; there was ever the pain of memory; the regret for his lost youth-yet the waters of disillusion had left a deposit on his soul, responsibility and a love of life, the faint stirring of old ambitions and unrealized dreams...... And he could not tell why the struggle was worth while, why he had determined to use to the utmost himself and his heritage from the personalities he had passed... He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky. I know myself," he cried, "but that is all.”

KnowsHeartStillsIdeasSoulUseDreamPainLostLeftWaterMemoriesResponsibilityStruggleSkyYouthRegretArmsPersonalityAmbitionDeterminedLove LifeHeritageCriedRiotStirringRadiantDepositsDisillusionLost YouthUnrealized Dreams
Book:This Side of Paradise
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“Jo's ambition was to do something very splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left it for time to tell her.”

IdeasLeftAmbitionNo IdeaSplendidLittle Women
Book:The Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated): Novels, Short Stories, Plays & Poems: Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys, A Modern Mephistopheles, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, Behind a Mask, The Abbot's Ghost…
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“They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me. I want to do things-- I want to walk the rain-soaked streets of London, and drink mint tea in Casablanca. I want to wander the wastelands of the Gobi desert and see a yak. I think my life's ambition is to see a yak. I want to bargain for trinkets in an Arab market in some distant, dusty land. There's so much. But, most of all, I want to do things that will mean something.”

ThinkingWorldWantMeanWholeLeftWaitingWalksStreetsLandDrinkTravelAmbitionRainRemainsLondonWhole WorldWanderTeaDesertContinentsBargainsMintUnexploredWastelandTrinketsYaks
Author:Lisa Ann Sandell
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“The men and woman who make the best boon companions seem to have given up hope of doing something else...some defect of talent or opportunity has cut them off from their pet ambition and has thus left them with leisure to take an interest in their lives of others. Your ambition may be, it makes him keep his thoughts at home. But the heartbroken people - if I may use the word in a mild, benevolent sense - the people whose wills are subdued to fate, give us consolation, recognition, and welcome.”

PeopleIfsMenGivingHeartMayUseHomeSeemsOpportunityLeftGivenInterestCuttingFateTalentHe ManAmbitionWelcomeRecognitionPetCompanionLeisureDefectsConsolationHeartbrokenGiven UpLives Of OthersBenevolentBoon
Author:John Jay Chapman
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“Inspiration comes unawares, from unaccountable sources that have nothing to do with planning or intelligence. Let it cool ever so slightly, and you are left, pen or brush in hand, with no inspiration at all. Gifted people need not, therefore, make a song and dance about being or supposing themselves superior. They simply happened to be born with that fortunate, subconscious equipment of theirs, and the mystery exists independently of intelligence or ambition.”

PeopleNeedsHandsInspirationSongLeftBornHappenedMysterySourceAmbitionPlanningSuperiorsFortunatePensGiftedSubconsciousBrushesEquipmentSupposingSong And Dance
Author:Maurice Chevalier
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“So in the end, was it worth it? Jesus Christ. How irreparably changed my life has become. It's always the last day of summer and I've been left out in the cold with no door to get back in. I'll grant you I've had more than my share of poignant moments. Life passes most people by while they're making grand plans for it. Throughout my lifetime, I've left pieces of my heart here and there. And now, there's almost not enough to stay alive. But I force a smile, knowing that my ambition far exceeded my talent. There are no more white horses or pretty ladies at my door.”

PeopleHeartEndsEnoughMomentsLastsJesusLeftForceChristWhiteKnowingPiecesAlivePlansDoorsShareTalentChangedColdMy HeartAmbitionSummerJesus ChristHorseLifetimeBlowGrantsGet BackWorth ItHere And ThereMy AmbitionChanged My LifeLast DayStaying AliveLeft OutPoignantWhite HorsePretty Lady
Author:George Jung
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