Very few people are ambitious in the sense of having a specific image of what they want to achieve. Most people's sights are only toward the next run, the next increment of money.

What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me.

Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top.

The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.

Big results require big ambitions.

The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go.

I want to work with the top people, because only they have the courage and the confidence and the risk-seeking profile that you need.

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.

I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions.

We grow small trying to be great.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.

Ambition never comes to an end.

A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.

He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.

Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

If you have a great ambition, take as big a step as possible in the direction of fulfilling it. The step may only be a tiny one, but trust that it may be the largest one possible for now.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

When ambition ends, happiness begins.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

I had no ambition to make a fortune. Mere money-making has never been my goal, I had an ambition to build.

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will.

Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.

To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.

Every child has great ambitions. As he grows, he is bombarded by negative suggestions -- you can't do this; you can't do that; be careful; look for security, and so on. Year by year, he experiences the "realities" of life, and his ambitions fade away. Figuratively speaking, most children die by the time they reach their adulthood.

Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme; to be sublimely great or to be nothing.

There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves.

Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment. [The Root Of The Righteous]

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.