Ambitious Quotes

• Further, Take heed that you faithfully perform the business you have to do in the world, from a regard to the commands of God; and not from an ambitious desire of being esteemed better than others.

  David Brainerd

  Desire, World, Command

  David BRAINERD, Horatius Bonar (1853). “The Life of David Brainerd ... Chiefly Taken from His Own Diary, and Other Private Writings. By Jonathan Edwards. With Preface, by the Rev. Horatius Bonar”, p.255

  137 Copy quote

  Show source

• The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Life, Inspiring

  Twitter post from Sep 28, 2016

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Inspirational, Life, Wise

  Gustave Flaubert (1951). “Letters”

  107 Copy quote

  Show source

• The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.

  Fisher Ames

  Believe, Ignorant, Democracy

  Fisher Ames (1809). “Works of Fisher Ames, compiled by a number of his friends”, p.384

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Inspirational, Motivational, Believe

  Arnold J. Toynbee (1949). “Civilization on Trial”

  73 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.354, Courier Corporation

  1513 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

  Salvador Dali

  Inspirational, Motivational, Art

  133 Copy quote
• 

  Big results require big ambitions.

  Heraclitus

  Business, Ambition, Results

  150 Copy quote

• Back in the mid-1970s, we adopted some fairly ambitious goals to improve efficiency of our cars. What did we get? We got a tremendous boost in efficiency.

  Jay Inslee

  Umpires, Goal, Car

  8 Copy quote

• I'm tough, ambitious and I know exactly what I want.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Strong Women, Memorable, Feminist Art

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.

  William Shakespeare

  Funny, Life, Ambition

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [27]

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The tallest Trees are most in the Power of the Winds, and Ambitious Men of the Blasts of Fortune.

  William Penn

  Inspirational, Ambition, Power

  William Penn (1726). “A Collection of the Works of William Penn: To which is Prefixed a Journal of His Life, with Many Original Letters and Papers Not Before Published”, p.849

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• They [i.e. ambitious men] may not cease, but as a dog in a wheel, a bird in a cage, or a squirrel in a chain, so Budaeus compares them; they climb and climb still, with much labour, but never make an end, never at the top.

  Robert Burton

  Dog, Business, Ambition

  "The Anatomy of Melancholy". Book by Robert Burton, 1621.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.

  Walter Scott

  Nature, Ambition, Perfection

  7 Copy quote

• It's a very smart and heartfelt movie and that's why, I think, we're all drawn to it. We really showed up for this with this collective idea that it was really ambitious, but we felt we all really had something to gain from it.

  Robert Downey, Jr.

  Smart, Thinking, Ideas

  6 Copy quote

• I used to think that driving, sleepless, ambitious labor was what you needed to succeed.

  Charles Kuralt

  Thinking, Insomnia, Succeed

  9 Copy quote

• Who can wonder at the attractiveness... of the bar, for our ambitious young men, when the highest bribes of society are at the feet of the successful orator?

  Marsilio Ficino

  Success, Men, Feet

  9 Copy quote

• But time has caught up with it and I think vindicated it. Shampoo, too: very dark, very ambitious movie.

  Robert Towne

  Dark, Thinking, Shampoo

  7 Copy quote

• Toting around a full orchestra on tour is very ambitious. I would consider doing a show now and then, like do a show at Radio City or Carnegie Hall with a full orchestra.

  Vanessa Carlton

  Journey, Cities, Orchestra

  Interview with Spence D., www.ign.com. December 1, 2004.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.

  Elizabeth I

  Strength, Reality, Hands

  7 Copy quote

• You think of stars as ambitious or aggressive or self-oriented.

  John Turturro

  Stars, Thinking, Self

  7 Copy quote

• I have been ambitious to be a somebody from the time I was 5 years old

  Ethel Merman

  Years, Has Beens

  Ethel Merman, George Eells (1979). “Merman: an autobiography”, Berkley Pub Group

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Time, Learning, Men

  Louisa May Alcott (2016). “Little Women”, p.254, Louisa May Alcott

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Being a celebrity or anything else where you're really ambitious, it's really a game to see how successful you can get.

  Joe Rogan

  Successful, Games

  7 Copy quote

• Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Humble, Humility, Envious

  18 Copy quote