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Ambition Quotes

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Ambition Quotes

“A government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices, and ambitions of their leaders is a democracy.”

Government Passion Leader Democracy Ambition Vices Multitudes

Book:Works of Fisher Ames

Source: Works of Fisher Ames

“There is no evil that does not promise inducements. Avarice promises money; luxury, a varied assortment of pleasures; ambition, a purple robe and applause. Vices tempt you by the rewards they offer.”

Doe Evil Pleasure Promise Offers Ambition Rewards Vices Luxury Purple Applause Avarice Robes

Author:Seneca the Younger

“Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.”

Parent Virtue Ambition Vices My Ambition Often Is

Author:Edgar Quinet

“A thirsty ambition for truth and virtue, and a frenzy to conquer all lies and vices which are not recognized as such nor desire to be; herein consists the heroic spirit of the philosopher.”

Spirit Lying Desire Virtue Ambition Philosopher Vices Conquer Heroic Thirsty Frenzy

Author:Johann Georg Hamann

“Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues. [Lat., Licet ipsa vitium sit ambitio, frequenter tamen causa virtutem est.]”

Parent Virtue Ambition Vices

Author:Quintilian

“People's lives are filled with vice and the trappings of it. Ambition, greed and selfishness all have to do with vice. Sooner or later, you have to see through it or you don't survive.”

People Ambition Filled Greed Vices Selfishness Sooner Or Later

Author:Bob Dylan

“Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a morecalculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.”

People Men World Form Design Humility Pride Thousand Shapes Ambition Capable Vices Hypocrisy Submit Deceiving Disguise Concealed Exalted

Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Girls can be athletic. Guys can have feelings. Girls can be smart. Guys can be creative. And vice versa. Gender is specific only to your reproductive organs (and sometimes not even to those), not your interest, likes, dislikes, goals, and ambitions.”

Source: A Work in Progress: A Memoir

“Ambition is not a vice of little people.”

People Inspirational Littles Ambition Vices My Ambition Life Ambition

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)

“All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”

Source: History of the United States: to which is prefixed a brief historical account of our [English] ancestors, from the dispersion at Babel, to their migration to America, and of the conquest of South America, by the Spaniards

“It is said that any virtue when taken to an extreme can become a vice. Overscheduling our days would certainly qualify for this. There comes a point where milestones can become millstones and ambitions, albatrosses around our necks.”

Said Virtue Taken Ambition Vices Extremes Necks Milestone Albatross

Author:Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.”

May Mother Virtue Ambition Faults Vices

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Quintilian (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Quintilian (Illustrated)

“There is scarce any passion so heartily decried by moralists and satirists, as AMBITION; and yet, methinks, ambition is not a vice but in a vicious mind: in a virtuous mind it is a virtue, and will be found to take its color from the character in which it is mixed. Ambition is a desire of superiority; and a man may become superior, either by making others less or himself greater.”

Men Mind May Character Desire Passion Found Virtue Greater Color Ambition Vices Superiors Virtuous Superiority Vicious Scarce Satirist Moralist

Author:Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke

“He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.”

Source: Senator Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia: His Life, Speeches and Writings

“Ambition, in a private man is a vice, is in a prince the virtue.”

Men Virtue Ambition Vices

Author:Philip Massinger

“Religion is a means of exploitation employed by the strong against the weak; religion is a cloak of ambition, injustice and vice . . . . Truth breaks free, science is popularized, and religion totters; soon it will fall, in the course of centuries--that is, tomorrow. . . . In good time we shall only have to deal with reason.”

Mean Reason Fall Courses Strong Deals Break Century Tomorrow Ambition Weak Injustice Vices Good Times Exploitation Employed Cloaks

Author:Georges Bizet

“A cardinal American virtue, 'ambition,' promotes a cardinal American vice, 'deviant behavior.”

Virtue Behavior Ambition Vices Cardinals Deviants

Book:On Social Structure and Science

Source: On Social Structure and Science