Quotes About Ambition

An ambition to excel in petty things obstructs the progress to nobler aims.

Ambition, in one respect, is like a singer's voice; pitched at too high a key, it breaks and comes to nothing.

We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature has set none.

We repose too much upon the actual, when we should be seeking to develop the possibilities of our being. It is true of nearly all of us, that what we have done is little compared with what we might have accomplished, or may hereafter effect.

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

Political aspirants make too much of the people before election, and, if successful, too much of themselves after it. They use the people when they want to rise, as we treat a spirited horse when we want to mount him;--for a time we pat the animal upon the neck, and speak him softly; but once in the saddle, then come the whip and spur.

The reveries of the dreamer advance his hopes, but not their realization. One good hour of earnest work is worth them all.

A great destiny needs a generous diet.... What can be expected of a people that live on macaroni!

A failure usually establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.

One foot on Mount Olympus, the other in the kitty litter.

Chivalry was more an ambition than an accomplishment, but—and this is the important thing—it was the common ambition of increasing numbers of men, and it had the effect of elevating and concretizing their civil righteousness. Religion also did this.

My father came from a very poor background, but I was very fortunate in the sense that we were never in need. My dad was determined to make sure that we didn't want for things. He wanted to give us more opportunity than he had, a better shot at a better life.

Friends suggested that it sounded a bit sinister. But something about it must have captivated Bezos: he registered the URL in September 1994, and he kept it. Type Relentless.com into the Web today and it takes you to Amazon.

He announced his intentions to build a spaceport by walking into the office of a local newspaper, the Van Horn Advocate, and giving an impromptu interview to its bewildered editor.

What we do is hard. This is not where people go to retire.

These are not fever dreams. They are near inevitabilities. It's an easy prediction to make—that Jeff Bezos will do what he has always done. He will attempt to move faster, work his employees harder, make bolder bets, and pursue both big inventions and small ones, all to achieve his grand vision for Amazon—that it be not just an everything store, but ultimately an everything company.

If you're not good, Jeff will chew you up and spit you out. And if you're good, he will jump on your back and ride you into the ground.

What we are doing here is building a giant rocket ship, and we're going to light the fuse. Then it's either going to go to the moon or leave a giant smoking crater in the ground. Either way I want to be here when it happens.

An interviewer once asked Bezos why he was motivated to accomplish so much, considering that he had already amassed an exceedingly large fortune. "I have realized about myself that I'm very motivated by people counting on me," he answered. "I like to be counted on.

It's an easy prediction to make—that Jeff Bezos will do what he has always done. He will attempt to move faster, work his employees harder, make bolder bets, and pursue both big inventions and small ones, all to achieve his grand vision for Amazon—that it be not just an everything store, but ultimately an everything company.

Gradatim Ferociter, which translates to "Step by Step, Ferociously.

new motto: get big fast

steady progress toward seemingly impossible goals will win the day

they have an absolute willingness to torch the landscape around them to emerge the winner