Famous Quotes & Sayings

Joseph Addison

There is a kind of grandeur and respect which the meanest and most insignificant part of mankind endeavor to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The poorest mechanic, nay, the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his set of admirers, and delights in that superiority which he enjoys over those who are in some respects beneath him. This ambition, which is natural to the soul of man, might, methinks, receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a person's advantage, as it generally does to his uneasiness and disquiet.

Joseph Addison

It is observed by Cicero, that men of the greatest and most shining parts are most actuated by ambition.

Joseph Addison

Content has a kindly influence on the soul of man, in respect of every being to whom he stands related. It extinguishes all murmuring, repining, and ingratitude toward that Being who has allotted us our part to act in the world. It destroys all inordinate ambition; gives sweetness to the conversation, and serenity to all the thoughts; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire of them.

Joseph Addison

To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to shine forever with new accessions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge,--carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man.

Joseph A. Schumpeter

Why should we stunt our ambitions and impoverish our lives in order to be insulted and looked down upon in our old age?

Jordin Sparks

Right now, I feel like I can take on the world. Ambition is the perfect word for where I am in my life right now.

Jonathan Stroud

Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it.

Kevin Rudd

I do not know whether I will be in this place for a short or a long time. That is for others to decide. But what I do know is that I have no intention of being here for the sake of just being here. Together with my colleagues it is my intention to make a difference .

Kevin Spacey

I dont even think in terms of ambition.

Kevin Spacey

Its a really wonderful thing to focus your life on something other than your own personal career and ambition.

James Thurber

This is the posture of fortunes slave: one foot in the gravy, one foot in the grave.

James Nachtwey

The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I'm benefiting from someone else's tragedy. This idea haunts me. It's something I have to reckon with every day, because I know that if I ever allow genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition, I will have sold my soul. The only way I can justify my role is to have respect for the other person's predicament. The extent to which I do that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other and to that extent I can accept myself.

James Madison

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

James Madison

America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.

Emile Hirsch

Artistic ambition is important. And it seems it would be a great time to do some theatre, like a new extreme.

Emile Zola

The vague torment of ... ambition.

Emile M. Cioran

Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen.

Ellen G. White

Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set. Then set your mark high, and step by step, even though it be by painful effort, by self-denial and sacrifice, ascend the whole length of the ladder of progress.

Eric Ries

The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build-the thing customers want and will pay for-as quickly as possible. In other words, the Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time.

Epicurus

Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.

Emily Dickinson

Longing, it may be, is the gift no other gift supplies.

Henry Taylor

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

Henry Taylor

Wisdom is corrupted by ambition, even when the quality of the ambition is intellectual. For ambition, even of this quality, is but a form of self-love...

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ambition's cradle oftenest is its grave

Henri Poincare

[T]he different branches of Arithmetic - Ambition [G]eometry is not true, it is advantageous.

Henry Ford

To lift farm drudgery off flesh and blood and lay it on steel and motors has been my most constant ambition

Helen McCrory

I was lucky to learn early in life that you need money for food and shelter, but there's no ambition in having money in the bank for the sake of it!

Helen Mirren

Where does this guy's ambition go? That's very peculiar. I think he's a very disturbing person, I think he's a very disturbing politician. Personally, I feel his interest is a self-interest

Hilary Mantel

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.

Heraclitus

The results are in great need greater ambition.

Henry Ward Beecher

Your honors here may serve you for a time, as it were for an hour, but they will be of no use to you beyond this world. Nobody will have heard a word of your honors in the other life. Your glory, your shame, your ambitions, and all the treasures for which you push hard and sacrifice much will be like wreaths of smoke. For these things, which you mostly seek, and for which you spend your life only tarry with you while you are on this side of the flood.

Henry Ward Beecher

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

Henry Ward Beecher

Ambition is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.