Quotes About Ambition

Bernie Marcus was fired from a job as manager of the Handy Dan Improvement Center, then went on to start Home Depot.

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die." — Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect

The next time you're looking at a charity, don't ask about the rate of their overhead. Ask about the scale of their dreams.

Each step you take reveals a new horizon. You have taken the first step today. Now, I challenge you to take another.

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? . . . We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

In an interview on 60 Minutes, Tom Brady, the New England Patriots star quarterback, winner of three Super Bowls before turning thirty, tried to explain what was bothering him. "Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there is something greater out there for me? A lot of people would say, 'This is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream. It's got to be more than this. I mean, this isn't what it's all cracked up to be."9

A raise is like a martini it elevates the spirit, but only temporarily.

Always make your future bigger than your past.

If greatness is your goal, it can only be achieved today.

We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are greater than our memories.

Personal confidence comes from making progress toward goals that are far bigger than your present capabilities.

I don't think we set and achieve goals in an effort to become happy. We do it because we are happy and want to expand our happiness

I get bored. We seem to have been having a little bit more time off this winter than last winter. I'm always itching to get back in the car. It's going to get harder, so I've got to make sure that I'm doing everything I possibly can do to make sure I can start next season how I ended this season.

Don't let anyone steal your dream. It's your dream, not theirs.

I was now planning on replacing "bull in a china shop" with "dragon sees a new hoard.

I tried to go out for theater or theater arts, but I was too scared or too intimidated. But I had a lot of friends on the cross country team that had great senses of humor.

I had amazing stuff happen right off the top. I thought this was how it worked. Hollywood is awesome! Cut to three years later: What happened?

For some, their endless potential can be more frightening than their shortcomings,

But success, she was beginning to realize, was not as much a destination as an endless freeway clogged with hazards.

My professional dreams were coming true while I was living a personal nightmare.

Believe it or not, lots of people change their majors and abandon their dreams just to avoid a couple of math classes in college.

If anyone tells you it's impossible to be fabulous and smart and make a ton of money using math, well, they can just get in line behind you - and kiss your math.

I've never been bashful to say that I'm not really interested in Formula One. When I lived in England, it's all I wanted to do and I thought that anything else would somehow be a compromise to my dreams. But then when I came back to the States, I realised how much I loved being back in the States.

When you're always taking the next healthy step mentally and physically, you're as in charge of your life as you can be. But what happens after you take that action—how others react to you, whether you get that job or that award or that opportunity—isn't something you're in charge of. Wallowing in "what ifs" doesn't do you any good; in fact, it's a distraction from taking the next positive, powerful, passionate step forward.