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Ambition quotes

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“The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“Ambition is the immoderate desire of power.” Baruch Spinoza, “Ethics” - 1677

“we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Oscar Wilde, “Lady Windermere's Fan” - 1893

“My ambition is handicapped by laziness.” Charles Bukowski, “Factotum” - 1975

“I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, 'There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.'” Marilyn Monroe, “My Story” - 1974

“Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I’ll sleep more easily by night.” George R. R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones” - 1996

“I wanted the whole world or nothing.” Charles Bukowski, “Post Office” - 1971

“PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1906

“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York; and all the clouds that lour'd upon our house in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.” William Shakespeare, “Richard III” - 1597

“Urge them while their souls are capable of this ambition, lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath of soft petitions, pity, and remorse, cool and congeal again to what it was.” William Shakespeare, “King John” - 1623

“Dependance begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“The Master leads by emptying people's minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“Vimes had never mastered ambition. It was something that happened to other people.” Terry Pratchett, “Guards! Guards!” - 1989

“But virtue's true reward is happiness itself, for which the virtuous work: whereas if they worked for honor, it would no longer be a virtue, but ambition.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise any one who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking...” William James, “The Varieties of Religious Experience” - 1902

“It ought to be the employer's ambition, as leader, to pay better wages than any similar line of business, and it ought to be the workman's ambition to make this possible.” Henry Ford, “My Life and Work” - 1922

“I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.” George R. R. Martin, “A Dance with Dragons” - 2011

“those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it.” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” - 2007

“his dreams were as gigantic as his surroundings were small.” Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure” - 1895

“How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of nature!” Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Sign of the Four” - 1890

“the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

Related topics

dreams leadership virtue desire power modesty darkness stars success happiness dream pity poverty honor pride nature winter summer offence enemy

Related authors

William Shakespeare (4)
George R. R. Martin (2)
Charles Bukowski (2)
Oscar Wilde (1)
J. K. Rowling (1)
John Green (1)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
Thomas Jefferson (1)
Lao Tzu (1)
Terry Pratchett (1)
Thomas Aquinas (1)
William James (1)
Marilyn Monroe (1)
Henry Ford (1)
Baruch Spinoza (1)

Related sources

Hamlet (2)
Richard III (1)
Lady Windermere's Fan (1)
King John (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
The Fault in Our Stars (1)
The Devil's Dictionary (1)
Notes on the State of Virginia (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
Guards! Guards! (1)
Summa Theologica (1)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (1)
My Story (1)
My Life and Work (1)
Ethics (1)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (1)
Factotum (1)
A Dance with Dragons (1)
The Sign of the Four (1)
Jude the Obscure (1)