Quotes About Ambition

The world is hard and you can't have everything.

It's from Balzac. 'Behind every great fortune there is a crime.' That was the theme I saw, even though the fortune ran through his fingers long before he was shot down in Cicero.

Tell you something, my friend — if I worked hard and really wanted it, there might be a real Rembrandt on my wall someday. Sure. In a job like this, there is nowhere to go but up. In a way, that's the scary part...

Greed in a good cause is still greed.

But most of all they only say you were caught, that you wanted to be King, that it must be so.

It's like practicing pole vaulting your entire life, and then getting to the olympics and saying, 'what the hell did I want to jump over this stupid bar for?

For years Gottlieb had overseen medical experiments and "special interrogation" projects in which hundreds of people were tormented and many minds were permanently shattered. No one had ever plunged into this kind of work with more ambition or enthusiasm.

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away—even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

There's neither need nor justification to wallow in the trough of mediocrity.

NOTHING GREAT WILL EVER BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT GREAT MEN, AND MEN ARE GREAT ONLY IF THEY ARE DETERMINED TO BE SO. FOR GLORY GIVES HERSELF ONLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALWAYS DREAMED OF HER." —Charles De Gaulle, from The Army of the Future (Vers l'armée de métier), 1941

Best way to predict your future is to create it.

Your attitude determines your altitude

What lies behind us is nothing compared to what lies within us and ahead of us.

Whatever you can do, or dream, begin it! For boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you give your life to? If you knew you didn't have to work for a living, what would you give your life to?

Satisfied needs do not motivate. It's only the unsatisfied need that motivates.

There might be exceptions—and if so, you might rethink their employment—but few people really want to be mediocre. Most of your team members want to make a valued contribution—to find purpose in their work.

Chariots of Fire or plays like Les Misérables

their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.

what is the truth about the inner motivations, character, and ambition of those who hold power?

more important than how fast you're going, is where you're headed.

By working on knowledge, skill, and desire

One of the most important variables in whether an enterprise remains great lies in a simple question: what is the truth about the inner motivations, character, and ambition of those who hold power? Their

I will be a self-starting individual who exercises initiative in accomplishing my life's goals.