Quotes About Ambition

Jo's ambition was to do something very splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left it for time to tell her; and, meanwhile, found her greatest affliction in the fact that she couldn't read, run, and ride as much as she liked. A quick temper, sharp tongue, and restless spirit were always getting her into scrapes, and her life was a series of ups and downs, which were both comic and pathetic.

I want to do something splendid... Something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead... I think I shall write books.

John D. Rockefeller was not only self-made but self-invented and already had unyielding faith in his own judgment.

Whenever his ambition was about to devour him, his conscience urged restraint.

Like Rockefeller, he advocated self-discipline and deferred gratification.

He saw that money could bring majesty in the moral as well as secular sphere, which excited him more than fancy estates or clothes.

Two people competed for the position—

Still, Tidewater pushed relentlessly ahead.

Right on the eve of Tidewater's success, Rockefeller decided that he might recoup in the political arena what he was on the verge of losing in the economic sphere.

I shudder to think of what I should have been if I had remained in Richford all my life," he later confided.

Pierpont began to emerge from his father's shadow and take charge of major deals.

if he failed to reach that level, Rockefeller would make up the difference.

the dividing line will not be Mason & Dixons but between patriotism, & intelligence on the one side & superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other.

John labored tirelessly to win control of Pioneer Oil Works and, instead of snuffing it out, favored its discreet absorption by Standard Oil.

Laura was sufficiently pleased with work that she felt in no special rush to get married.

I had planned to write the great American novel, having the Standard Oil Company as a backbone!

Hamilton's crowded years as treasury secretary scarcely exhaust the epic story of his short life, which was stuffed with high drama. From his illegitimate birth on Nevis to his bloody downfall in Weehawken, Hamilton's life was so tumultuous that only an audacious novelist could have dreamed it up. He embodied an enduring archetype: the obscure immigrant who comes to America, re-creates himself, and succeeds despite a lack of proper birth and breeding.

To mark their new financial status

Frank wanted to have it both ways: to be heavily indebted to his brothers yet operate free of their control.

What he brought to the concept was unprecedented scale and scope.

Rockefeller and Charles clashed repeatedly over this question.

Wanting to emulate the big killings of his brothers, he was tempted again and again into foolhardy ventures.

Life was a serious business to me when I was young.

A man who succeeds in life must sometimes go against the current.