Very few people are ambitious in the sense of having a specific image of what they want to achieve. Most read more

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.

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

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

If at great things thou would'st arrive,
Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap,
Not difficult, read more

If at great things thou would'st arrive,
Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap,
Not difficult, if thou hearken to me;
Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand,
They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain,
While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.

Big results require big ambitions.

Big results require big ambitions.

I do not fear failure. I only fear the "slowing up" of the engine inside of me which is pounding, read more

I do not fear failure. I only fear the "slowing up" of the engine inside of me which is pounding, saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?"

The great refusal.
[It., Il gran rifiuto.]

The great refusal.
[It., Il gran rifiuto.]

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

Here may we reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell.
read more

Here may we reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell.
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be read more

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,
Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows
A harvest of barren regrets.