Quotes About Ambition

Nothing, save the hangman's noose, concentrates the mind like piles of cash.

I'd forgotten how arrogant people are in the theater, I'm agreeing to starve for a year and he seems to think I should be pleased to have the part.

That's what the suitcase farmers were doing. Salesmen, druggists, barkeeps, docs, mechanics, teachers—the range of day-jobbers who thought they wanted to be wheat farmers, ripping up a half-section here and there, trying to hit a crop—they were getting out before they got in any deeper.

to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

In the balloons of grandeur that kept Stephenson aloft, the presidency was just a few puffs of helium away. "Boys, I'm not in this for the money," he told his cronies. "You're going to put me in the White House.

Better for a man to fail, he said, even "to fail greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

It's lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for 'realistic' goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.

Life is too short to be small.

For all their bitching about what's holding them back, most people have a lot of trouble coming up with the defined dreams they're being held from.

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition." —W.H. Auden

When you try to do something big its hard to fail completely.

If you want an average, successful life, it doesn't take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths: 1) Become the best at one specific thing. 2) Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things. The

Doing the Unrealistic Is Easier Than Doing the Realistic

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day. —ROBERT FROST, American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes

Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer. —NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, The Prince

Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it's important to you and you want to do it "eventually," just do it and correct course along the way.

If the best in the world are stretching their asses off in order to get strong, why aren't you?

Top academic institutions are wonderful, but there are unrecognized benefits to not coming out of one. Grads from top schools are funneled into high-income 80-hour-per-week jobs, and 15–30 years of soul-crushing work has been accepted as the default path. How do I know? I've been there and

I'm often asked how I define "success." It's an overused term, but I fundamentally view this elusive beast as a combination of two things - achievement and appreciation. One isn't enough: Achievement without appreciation makes you ambitious but miserable. Appreciation without achievement makes you unambitious but happy.

Remember: There is a direct correlation between an increased sphere of comfort and getting what you want.

Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas. —PAULA POUNDSTONE

There is just less competition for bigger goals.

Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.

Dreamlining is so named because it applies timelines to what most would consider dreams.