Ambition

(211 votes)   As falls the dew on quenchless sands, blood only serves to wash ambition's hands.

Lord Byron
1788-1824, British Poet

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(211 votes)   So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.

Lord Alfred Tennyson
1809-1892, British Poet

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(204 votes)   When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

Marcus T. Cicero
c. 106-43 BC, Great Roman Orator, Politician

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(179 votes)   Ambition -- it is the last infirmity of noble minds.

Sir James M. Barrie
1860-1937, British Playwright

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(172 votes)   Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Sir John Lubbock
1834-1913, British Statesman, Banker, Naturalist

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(159 votes)   The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery.

Oliver Goldsmith
1728-1774, Anglo-Irish Author, Poet, Playwright

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(148 votes)   Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist

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(139 votes)   He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.

Lao-Tzu
BC 600-?, Chinese Philosopher, Founder of Taoism, Author of the ''Tao Te Ching''

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(138 votes)   Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.

Thomas Dunn English
1819-1902, American Physician, Lawyer

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(137 votes)   The person who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won't succeed; you must have a larger ambition. There is no mystery in business success. If you do each day's task successfully, and stay faithfully within these natural operations of commercial laws which I talk so much about, and keep your head clear, you will come out all right.

John D. Rockefeller
1839-1937, American Industrialist, Philanthropist, Founder Exxon

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(121 votes)   A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

Joseph Conrad
1857-1924, Polish-born British Novelist

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(115 votes)   Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

Niccolo Machiavelli
1469-1527, Italian Author, Statesman

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(115 votes)   I too must attempt a way by which I can raise myself above the ground, and soar triumphant through the lips of men.

Virgil
c. 70 - 19 BC, Roman Poet

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(112 votes)   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
1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat

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(112 votes)   Hasty climbers have sudden falls.

Italian Proverbs
Sayings of Italian Origin

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