Ambition - Quotes

A man without ambition is worse than dough that has no yeast in it to raise it. - Henry Ward Beecher

A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions. - Marcus Aurelius

A slave has but one master; the ambitious man has as many masters as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortune. - Bruyere

All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind. - William Congreve

All ambition owes its attractiveness to effort and desire rather than success. We find the object to which we attached so much value is in itself of little value whatever; it is our effort to obtain it which envalues it. - Anthony Lisle

Ambition begets vexations. - Singhalese Proverb

Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude. - Sallust

Ambition by itself never gets anywhere until it forms a partnership with work. - James Garfield 

Ambition can creep as well as soar. - Edmund Burke

Ambition destroys its possessor. - Hebrew Proverb

Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame, a grave to rest in, and a fading name! - William Winter

Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. Its appetite grows keener by indulgence and all we can gratify it with at present serves but the more to inflame its insatiable desires. - Benjamin Franklin

Ambition if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others. - Susan Sontag

Ambition is a commendable attribute, without which no man succeeds. - Unknown

Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen. - Emil Cioran 

Ambition is a good servant but a bad master. - Unknown

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment. - Thomas Otway

Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme, to be sublimely great, or to be nothing. - Thomas Southerne

Ambition is putting a ladder against the sky. - Unknown

Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth: she begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end. Ambition, in fact is the avarice of power. - C. C Colton

Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back. - Ben Jonson

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

Ambitious princes value inherited kingdoms not so much as conquered provinces. - Christian Nestell Bovee

Ambitions tend to remain undisturbed by realities. - Frank Herbert 

An ambition to excel in petty things obstructs the progress to nobler aims. - Christian Nestell Bovee

An ambition which has conscience in it will always be a laborious and faithful engineer, and will build the road, and bridge the chasms between itself and eminent success by the most faithful and minute performances of duty. - Henry Ward Beecher

Few are more unhappy than those who have great ambition, but little energy to urge it into activity. - Norman MacDonald 

He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss. - Niccolo Machiavelli

It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will. - Sallust

It is ordained that to the ambitious, who derive no satisfaction from the gifts of life and the beauty of the world, life shall be a cause of suffering, and they shall possess neither the profit nor the beauty of the world. - Leonardo da Vinci

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

Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

Most people would succeed in small things, if they were not troubled with great ambitions. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My ambition is handicapped by my laziness. - Charles Bukowski

Never doubt what small men will do for great power. - Paolo Bacigalupi 

Never let inexperience get in the way of ambition. - Terry Josephson

Oh, it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them – that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting. - Lucy Maud Montgomery

Say what we will, you may be sure that ambition is an error; its wear and tear of heart are never recompensed, – it steals away the freshness of life, – it deadens its vivid and social enjoyments, – it shuts our souls to our own youth, – and we are old ere we remember that we have made a fever and a labour of our raciest years. - Edward Bulwer Lytton

Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. - Mary Shelley

Take away ambition and vanity, and where will be your heroes and patriots? - Seneca

The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means. - Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The ambitious sacrifices all to what he terms honour, as the miser all to money. - Johann Kaspar Lavater

The greatest evil that fortune can bring to men is to endow them with feeble resources and yet to make them ambitious. - Luc de Clapiers

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. - William Shakespeare

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher. - Henry van Dyke 

There was no more dangerous kind of madman than one who devoted a good brain and a courageous heart to unhealthy ambitions. - Michael Moorcock

They that soar too high, often fall hard. - William Penn

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues. - Marcus Fabius Quintilian

We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement. - Lucy Maud Montgomery

With the ambitious, the failure of one expedient is the suggestion of another; but with the irresolute, defeat usually occasions abandonment of purpose. - Norman MacDonald

Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply be what is generally called a “success”. - Eleanor Roosevelt