Ambition Quotes

Men of great ambition have sought happiness . . . and have found fame.

I saw the way to achieve all my dreams. . . . I would found a religion, I saw myself marching on the way to Asia, mounted on an elephant, a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran that I would have composed to suit my needs. In my enterprises I would have combined the experiences of the two worlds, exploiting the realm of all history for my own profit.

Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.

We do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life, is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

It isn't sufficient just to want - you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

I believed that I would become a counsellor to the Thembu king.

This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes... This is a War of the Unknown Warriors; but let all strive without failing in faith or in duty; and the dark curse of Hitler will be lifted from our age.

It was my ambition all of my life to be master of the spoken word.

This fulfils my ambition. I still have my father's robe as Chancellor. I shall be proud to serve you in this splendid office.

I came into music just because I wanted the bread. It's true. I looked around and this seemed like the only way I was going to get the kind of bread I wanted.

I didn't have any inhibitions. I saw Elvis and Gene Vincent, and I thought, 'Well, I can do this.' And I liked doing it. It's a real buzz, even in front of 20 people, to make a complete fool of yourself. But people seemed to like it. And the thing is, if people started throwing tomatoes at me, I wouldn't have gone on with it. But they all liked it, and it always seemed to be a success, and people were shocked. I could see it in their faces.

There were a lot of choices to make and I always picked artist. I never once picked doctor, lawyer, firemen or something like that. It was always artist.

I was very active. I was always all over the place trying to do a million things, just into this activity. If you asked me when I was 14 what I wanted to be: "Activist, first, is my occupation. I am an activist."

You're only as much as you settle for. If they settle for being somebody's dishwasher that's their own f***ing problem. If you don't settle for that and you keep fighting it, you know, you'll end up anything you want to be.

I always wanted to be an artist, whatever that was, like other chicks want to be stewardesses. I read. I painted. I thought.

All my life I just wanted to be a beatnik. Meet all the heavies, get stoned, get laid, have a good time. That's all I ever wanted. Except I knew I had a good voice and I could always get a couple of beers off of it. All of a sudden someone threw me in this rock 'n' roll band. They threw these musicians at me, man, and the sound was coming from behind. The bass was charging me. And I decided then and there that that was it. I never wanted to do anything else. It was better than it had been with any man, you know. Maybe that's the trouble.

I've been looking around, and I noticed something: how much you really need to be loved. Ambition isn't just a desperate quest for positions or money. It's just love - lots of love.