Sunday, May 15, 2011 – Blind Ambition
A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor. ~ Aldous Huxley
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. ~ Marcus Aurelius
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favor cannot satisfy him. ~ Samuel Johnson
All sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority otherwise called ambition. ~ Cesare Pavese
Ambition – it is the last infirmity of noble minds. ~ James M. Barrie
Ambition aspires to descend. ~ Pierre Corneille
Ambition is a Dead Sea fruit, and the greatest peril to the soul is that one is likely to get precisely what he is seeking. ~ Edward Dahlberg
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. ~ Elvis Presley
Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen. ~ Emile M. Cioran
Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment. ~ Thomas Otway
Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked. ~ Walter Savage Landor
Ambition is not a vice of little people. ~ Michel de Montaigne
Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. ~ Oscar Wilde
Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping. ~ A. C. Benson
Ambition: An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead. ~ Ambrose Bierce
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. ~ Salvador Dali
I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office. ~ Thomas Jefferson
I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom. ~ Thomas Carlyle
Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I’d place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs. ~ Horace Walpole
The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition. ~ Marquis De Vauvenargues
The psychoanalysis of neurotics has taught us to recognize the intimate connection between wetting the bed and the character trait of ambition. ~ Sigmund Freud
What is my loftiest ambition? I’ve always wanted to throw an egg at an electric fan. ~ Oliver Herford
What likelihood is there of corrupting a man who has no ambition? ~ Samuel Richardson
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. ~ Timothy Leary
I’m tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay. ~ Madonna
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?” ~ General George S. Patton
Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be. ~ Bob Dylan
Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~ Milan Kundera
Just Above Sunset 