Quotes About Ambition

You would rise in the world? . . . You must work while others amuse themselves. Are you desirous of a reputation for courage? You must risk your life. Churchill, Savrola

This is a time to try men of force and vision and not to be exclusively confined to those who are judged safe by conventional standards.

He had that ruthless side without which great affairs cannot be handled.

Andrew Roberts

Politicians rise by toils and struggles. They expect to fall; they hope to rise again.

Vaunting ambition can be a terrible thing, but if allied to great ability – a protean energy, grand purpose, the gift of oratory, near-perfect recall, superb timing, inspiring leadership – it can bring about extraordinary outcomes.

The reading of history very soon made me feel that I was capable of achieving as much as the men who are placed in the highest ranks of our annals.

Great men are seldom nice men.

Andrew Roberts

Andrew Roberts

The neglect and emotional cruelty at the hands of his parents that could have crushed a lesser person instead gave Churchill an unquenchable desire to succeed in life, not only in general but in his father's chosen profession of politics.

Andrew Roberts

To understand a man,' Napoleon once said, 'look at the world when he was twenty.

If he lasts a year, he'll go far.' Talleyrand on Napoleon's consulship

I wanted learning and I wanted funds. I wanted freedom. I realized there was no freedom without funds. I had to make money to get essential independence;

Though he was eighteen months younger than Joseph, Napoleon was always stronger-willed.)

Placing oneself in the limelight while seeming modestly to edge away from it is one of the most skilful of all political moves, and Napoleon had mastered it perfectly.

Napoleon taught ordinary people that they could make history, and convinced his followers they were taking part in an adventure, a pageant, an experiment, an epic whose splendour would draw the attention of posterity for centuries to come.

The future is a matter of contempt for those with courage. - Napoleon Bonaparte.

I wasn't going to compete with her for Father's approval, but that didn't mean I couldn't find a way to make this into entertainment of my own.

I was never going to not want more swords

Once someone's source of motivation is self-actualization, his drive to perform has no limit. Thus, its most important characteristic is that unlike other sources of motivation, which extinguish themselves after the needs are fulfilled, self-actualization continues to motivate people to ever higher levels of performance.

Complacency often afflicts precisely those who have been the most successful.

In order to build anything great, you have to be an optimist, because by definition you are trying to do something that most people would consider impossible. Optimists most certainly do not listen to leading indicators of bad news.