Quotes About Ambition

He didn't want to be great, but to be thought great.

I fear for your future, Kira,' said Victor. 'It's time to get reconciled to life. You won't get far with those ideas of yours.' 'That,' said Kira, 'depends on what direction I want to go.

will, when he gets here. But, boy!—I'd work for him as a cinder sweeper. He'd blast through this valley like a rocket. He'd triple everybody's production." "Who's that?" "Hank Rearden.

I don't intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.

No podía permitir que funcionara frenado por la advertencia: Cuidado. Mas despacio. Cautela. No trabajes a pleno rendimiento si no te lo exigen.

One doesn't get to be first in anything without the strength to make some sacrifices.

conformarse con un trabajo que requiere menos que la plena capacidad de tu mente es apagar tu motor y sentenciarte a la decadencia; de que nuestro trabajo es el proceso de alcanzar nuestros valores, y de que perder nuestra ambición por los valores es perder nuestra ambición de vivir; de que nuestro cuerpo es una máquina, pero nuestra mente es su conductor, y se debe conducir tan lejos como nos lleve nuestra mente

Money inside a man's pocket has the power to turn into confidence inside his mind.

economic strength to make a start. How do you expect

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours.

to settle down into a job that requires less than your mind's full capacity is to cut your motor and sentence yourself to another kind of motion: decay—that

Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours ... and could have been mine.

The man who has no purpose, but has to act, acts to destroy others. That is not the same thing as a productive or creative purpose.

cardboard on the tips of his ten fingers, up the crimson-plushed stairway to Guy Francon's office. The cardboard displayed a water-color perspective of a gray granite

No buscan destruir mis logros, sino robarlos.

You'll get everything society can give a man. You'll keep all the money. You'll take any fame or honor anyone might want to grant. You'll accept such gratitude as the tenants might feel. And I—I'll take what nobody can give a man, except himself. I will have built Cortlandt.

And only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement.

Do you have to be quite so fanatical and selfless about it? What? Roark asked, incredulously. Fanatical and selfless! Roark smiled. He looked down at his drawings. His elbowed moved, pressing them to his body. He said That was the most selfish thing you've ever seen a man do.

man's life must be a straight line of motion from goal to farther goal, each leading to the next and to a single growing sum, like a journey...

money is only a means to some end. If a man wants it for a personal purpose—to invest in his industry, to create, to study, to travel, to enjoy luxury—he's completely moral. But the men who place money first go much beyond that. Personal luxury is a limited endeavor. What they want is ostentation: to show, to stun, to entertain, to impress others. They're second-handers. Look

Wasn't it evil to wish without moving—or to move without aim?

to cheat your way into a job bigger than your mind can handle is to become a fear-corroded ape on borrowed motions and borrowed time, and to settle down into a job that requires less than your mind's full capacity is to cut your motor and sentence yourself to another kind of motion: decay—that

They never spoke of what they wished they might do in the future, they never wondered whether some mysterious omnipotence had favored them with some unknowable talent to achieve the things they wanted --- they spoke of what they would do.

The creator stands on his own judgment. The parasite follows the opinions of others… Look at history. Everything thing we have, every great achievement has come from the independent work of some independent mind. Every horror and destruction came from attempts to force men into a herd of brainless, soulless robots. Without personal rights, without personal ambition, without will, hope, or dignity. It is an ancient conflict. It has another name: the individual against the collective.