Ambition quotes

Ambition

2.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

2.3K quotes

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Browse quotes that often appear alongside ambition — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

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Ambition quotes (page 26 of 114)

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Barack Obama Politician
Ambition

"One of the things that we have to change in this country is the idea that people can't disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism. I have never suggested that Sen. McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. Now, it's time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same. Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country."

Believe Country Ambition
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Barack Obama Politician
Ambition

"I think that at a certain stage those early ambitions burn away, partly because you achieve something, you get something done, you get some notoriety. And then the particularities of who you are and what your deepest commitments are begin expressing themselves. You're not just chasing the idea of "me" being important, but you, rather, are chasing a particular passion."

Passion Ambition Commitment
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Barack Obama Politician
Ambition

"You may want to prove that you're worthy of other kids or neighbors who were wealthier than you and teased you. You may want to prove that you're worthy of high expectations. But I do think that there is a youthful ambition that very much has to do with making your mark in the world. And I think that cuts across the experiences of a lot of people who end up achieving something significant in their field."

Kids Cutting Ambition
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Barack Obama Politician
Ambition

"You could analyze me and say that my father leaving and being absent was a motivator for early ambition, trying to prove myself to this apparition who had vanished. You could argue that me being a mixed kid in a place where there weren't a lot of black kids around might have spurred on my ambitions. You could go through a whole litany of things that sparked me wanting to do something important."

Kids Father Ambition
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Ambition

"When merciless ambition, or mad zeal, has led two hosts of dupes to battlefield, That, blind, they there may dig each other's graves, And call the sad work glory."

Two Ambition Mad
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Philip Roth Novelist
Ambition

"a father for whom everything is an unshakable duty, for whom there is a right way and a wrong way and nothing in between, a father whose compound of ambitions, biases, and beliefs is so unruffled by careful thinking that he isn’t as easy to escape from as he seems. Limited men with limitless energy; men quick to be friendly and quick to be fed up; men for whom the most serious thing in life is to keep going despite everything. And we were their sons. It was our job to love them."

Jobs Father Ambition
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Plutarch Philosopher, Historian
Ambition

"Rome was in the most dangerous inclination to change on account of the unequal distribution of wealth and property, those of highest rank and greatest spirit having impoverished themselves by shows, entertainments, ambition of offices, and sumptuous buildings, and the riches of the city having thus fallen into the hands of mean and low-born persons. So that there wanted but a slight impetus to set all in motion, it being in the power of every daring man to overturn a sickly commonwealth."

Mean Wisdom Ambition
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Abraham Lincoln Political Leader
Ambition

"It is to deny, what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And, when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion, as others have so done before them."

Passion Spring Ambition
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Abraham Lincoln Political Leader
Ambition

"I affect no contempt for the high eminence he [Senator Stephen Douglas] has reached. So reached, that the oppressed of my species,might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence, than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow."

Might Ambition Crowns
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Edgar Allan Poe Poet, Writer
Ambition

"I am actuated by an ambition which I believe to be an honourable one — the ambition of serving the great cause of truth, while endeavouring to forward the literature of the country."

Believe Country Ambition
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Ambition

"The critics could never mortify me out of heart - because I love poetry for its own sake, - and, tho' with no stoicism and some ambition, care more for my poems than for my poetic reputation."

Heart Care Ambition
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Elizabeth Gilbert Author, Memoirist
Ambition

"But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a little while? Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to travel through time with no greater ambition than to find the next lovely meal? Or to learn how to speak a language for no higher purpose than that it pleases your ear to hear it? Or to nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favourite fountain? And then to do it again the next day?"

Ambition Garden Naps
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Emma Goldman Anarchist, Political Activist, Writer
Ambition

"Success achieved by the most contemptible means cannot but destroy the soul. ... It helps to cover up the inner corruption and gradually dulls one's scruples, so that those who begin with some high ambition cannot, even if they would, create anything out of themselves."

Mean Success Ambition
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Emma Watson Actress, Activist
Ambition

"WE NEED MORE OF THOSE AND IF YOU STILL HATE THE WORD, IT IS NOT THE WORD THAT IS IMPORTANT. IT'S THE IDEA AND THE AMBITION BEHIND IT."

Hate Motivational Ambition
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