ambition quotes

“What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Men often pass from love to ambition, but they seldom come back again from ambition to love. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

— William Shakespeare

“Me only have one ambition, y'know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together - black, white, Chinese, everyone - that's all.”

— Bob Marley

“Let love flow so that it cleanses the world. Then man can live in peace, instead of the state of turmoil he has created through his past ways of life, with all those material interests and earthly ambitions. ”

— Sai Baba

“America is a Nation with a mission - and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace - a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman. ”

— George Washington Bush

“I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure. ”

— George Washington Bush

“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them. ”

— Napoleon Bonaparte

“Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking. ”

— Napoleon Bonaparte

“As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too. ”

— Johnny Depp

“Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be. ”

— Bob Dylan

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

— Helen Keller

“Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”

— Barack Obama

“We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don't want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.”

— Barack Obama

“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”

— James Madison

“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.”

— Niccolo Machiavelli

“What we have, what we wish we had - ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed, investments won, investments lost, elections won, elections lost - these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us.”

— Mitt Romney

“The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.”

— Carl Sagan

“Time is the only critic without ambition.”

— John Steinbeck

“If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?”

— Vincent Van Gogh

“Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.”

— Jonathan Swift

“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.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“Ambition can creep as well as soar.”

— Edmund Burke

“Ambition is not what man does... but what man would do.”

— Robert Browning

“Ambition. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.”

— Ambrose Bierce