quotations about ambition
The burden of ambition is the strain of seeking approval. It is the taxing effort to earn the envy of others, many of whom are in competition with us. It is the weight of self-imposed anxiety over the recognition we believe is due us. The burden of ambition is the back-breaking labor required to maintain our place on the record board and defend it against all comers. It is the grief we feel when someone else matches or surpasses our achievement.
JOHN KOESSLER
The Radical Pursuit of Rest: Escaping the Productivity Trap
Once set fire to the train of a man's ambition, and it will never cease to burn until it reaches the glittering "Catharine Wheel" by which he has been dazzled, or, failing that, has scorched the luckless aspirant to a cinder.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
They that soar too high, often fall hard.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people -- which is what I think it does mean -- then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good. It isn't wrong for an actor to want to act his part as well as it can possibly be acted, but the wish to have his name in bigger type than the other actors is a bad one.
C. S. LEWIS
God in the Dock
If a person holds no ambitions in this world, he suffers unknowingly. If a person holds ambitions, he suffers knowingly, but very slowly.
ALAN LIGHTMAN
Einstein's Dreams
There was no more dangerous kind of madman than one who devoted a good brain and a courageous heart to unhealthy ambitions.
MICHAEL MOORCOCK
The City in the Autumn Stars
Ambition is a "lucifer" applied to a barrel of gunpowder, the explosion of which, where it succeeds in blowing one man into a niche, dashes twenty to atoms.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
Selfish ambition is idolatry and self-worship.
DAN DUMAS
Live Smart: Preparing for the Future God Wants for You
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 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
Few are more unhappy than those who have great ambition, but little energy to urge it into activity.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
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
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
Ambitious men ought to follow curved lines, the shortest road in politics.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
A Daughter of Eve
Never doubt what small men will do for great power.
PAOLO BACIGALUPI
The Windup Girl
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
Ambition hath but two steps: the lowest, blood; the highest, envy.
W. LILLY
attributed, Day's Collacon
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell