Quotes About Ambition

But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair.

He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him.

I'm not sure what I'll do, but— well, I want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow. I want to live where things happen on a big scale.

What little I've accomplished has been by the most laborious and uphill work, and I wish now I'd never relaxed or looked back - but said at the end of The Great Gatsby: 'I've found my line - from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty - without this I am nothing.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

He would have considered entering the leather business because the intensity of the competition would have kept him from unhappiness.

If you want to be prominent, get out and try for something.

The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God - a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that.

the sense of futility of effort and the sense of the necessity to struggle.

It's like lifting off in an airplane: you're on the ground, on the ground, on the ground... and then you're up, riding on a magical cushion of air and prince of all you survey. That makes me happy, because it's what I was made to do.

There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired

Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther….

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... and one fine morning- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning——

For what it's worth, it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of. And if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

If one can't be a great artist or a great soldier, the next best thing is to be a great criminal.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there's any other way.

Breathing dreams like air.

wishing he had always been as good as he had intended to be

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.