Quotes About Ambition

Success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblances to merit.... They confound the brilliance of the firmament with the star-shaped footprints of a duck in the mud.

Should we continue to look upwards? Is the light we can see in the sky one of those which will presently be extinguished? The ideal is terrifying to behold... brilliant but threatened on all sides by the dark forces that surround it: nevertheless, no more in danger than a star in the jaws of the clouds.

You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.

Success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.

I would rather be the head of a fly than the tail of a lion.

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

I'd rather be the head of a fly than the tail of a lion.

I exist, murmurs someone whose name is Everyone. I'm young and in love; I am old and I want rest; I work, I prosper, I do good business, I have houses to rent, money in State Securities; I am happy, I have wife and children; I like all these things and I want to go on living, so leave me alone.... There are moments when all this casts a deep chill on the large-minded pioneers of the human race.

We live in the midst of a gloomy society. Success; that is the lesson which falls drop by drop from the slope of corruption. Be it said in passing, that success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men. For the masses, success has almost the same profile as supremacy. Success, that Menaechmus of talent, has one dupe,--history.

Dream no small dreams. They have no power to stir the hearts of men.

Do we ever realize our fondest dreams?

Succeed; that is the advice that falls, drop by drop, from the overhanging fruit of corruption.

Time is greedy, man is greedier

Bonapartist democrat. Grey shades of a quiet mouse colour.

Be it said in passing, that success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.

Every skull-cap may dream of the tiara.

Every skull-cap may dream of the tiara. The priest is nowadays the only man who can become a king in a regular manner; and what a king! the supreme king.

We live in a sad society. Succeed--that is the advice which falls drop by drop from the overhanging corruption. In passing, we might say that success is a hideous thing. Its false similarity to merit deceives men.

We live in the midst of a gloomy society. Success; that is the lesson which falls drop by drop from the slope of corruption.

S'il avait eu le Pérou dans sa poche, certainement il l'eût donné à la danseuse ; mais Gringoire n'avait pas le Pérou, et d'ailleurs l'Amérique n'était pas encore découverte.

We are unjust towards these great men who attempt the future, when they fail.

Nothing proceeds more directly and more sincerely from the very depth of our soul, than our unpremeditated and boundless aspirations towards the splendors of destiny.

When they saw him making money, they said, He is a man of business. When they saw him scattering his money about, they said, He is an ambitious man. When he was seen to decline honors, they said, He is an adventurer. When they saw him repulse society, they said, He is a brute.

Ceux qui vivent, ce sont ceux qui luttent ; ce sont Ceux dont un dessein ferme emplit l'âme et le front. Ceux qui d'un haut destin gravissent l'âpre cime. Ceux qui marchent pensifs, épris d'un but sublime.