632 quotes
You have to believe in yourself.
Sun Tzu
Philosopher · Chinese
But we need to show that the EU can modernise itself, can adapt to the needs of its citizens, can take their views into account. That will be our ambition for the UK Presidency.
John Hutton
Educator · English · b. 1965
Never, never, never give up.
Winston Churchill
Statesman · English · 1874 – 1965
I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.
Anthony Trollope
Author · English · 1815 – 1882
Ambition, in a private man is a vice, is in a prince the virtue.
Philip Massinger
Poet · British · 1908 – 1908
Reach for it. Push yourself as far as you can.
Christa McAuliffe
Astronaut · American · 1948 – 1986
So, it takes a lot of chance and luck. I mean I was lucky enough to get in the program where people with the same skills never made it to the program. So keep trying.
Philippe Perrin
Astronaut · French · b. 1963
Continuous, unflagging effort, persistence and determination will win. Let not the man be discouraged who has these.
James Whitcomb Riley
Poet · American · 1849 – 1916
Don't give up. There are too many nay-sayers out there who will try to discourage you. Don't listen to them. The only one who can make you give up is yourself.
Sidney Sheldon
Novelist · American · 1917 – 2007
There is, however, another purpose to which academies contribute. When they consist of a limited number of persons, eminent for their knowledge, it becomes an object of ambition to be admitted on their list.
Charles Babbage
Mathematician · English · 1792 – 1871
Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
Les Brown
Businessman · American
You just never give up, no matter how hard the challenges are, and observe this world with a healthy dose of criticism and don't just follow the herd like somebody else might do.
Renny Harlin
Director · Finnish · b. 1959
Never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away.
Arthur Golden
Writer · American
Ambition can creep as well as soar.
Edmund Burke
Statesman · Irish · 1729 – 1797
But the Congress has made the determination that certain kinds of information can be protected even though the American people may want to have access to information.
Alberto Gonzales
Public Servant · American · b. 1955
We are beginning a new era in our government. I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities of the government.
Andrew Jackson
President · American · 1767 – 1845
American Splendor is just an ongoing journal. It's an ongoing autobiography. I started it when I was in my early 30s, and I just keep going.
Harvey Pekar
Writer · American · b. 1939
I did not want to be depressed by the gap existing between my weakness and my ambition.
Ella Maillart
Writer · Swiss · 1903 – 1997
Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book.
Anita Desai
Novelist · Indian · b. 1937
I believe that nothing happens apart from divine determination and decree. We shall never be able to escape from the doctrine of divine predestination - the doctrine that God has foreordained certain people unto eternal life.
Charles Spurgeon
Clergyman · British · 1834 – 1892
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
Artist · Spanish · 1904 – 1989
Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.
Horace Walpole
Author · English · 1717 – 1797
In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.
Jane Smiley
Writer · American · b. 1949
The man of petty ambition if invited to dinner will be eager to be set next his host.
Theophrastus
Philosopher · Greek
Ambition aspires to descend.
Pierre Corneille
Dramatist · French · 1606 – 1684
I see my face in the mirror, and I said, No, my ambition is not to be an actor.
Dino De Laurentiis
Director · Italian · b. 1919
Social psychology is especially interested in the effect which the social group has in the determination of the experience and conduct of the individual member.
George H. Mead
Philosopher · American · 1863 – 1931
Up until now, the prospect of parole has kept us from confronting our captors with any real determination.
George Jackson
Activist · American · 1941 – 1971
Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.
Thomas Otway
Dramatist · English
What to an outsider will be no more than the vigorous presentation of a conviction, to an employee may be the manifestation of a determination which it is not safe to thwart.
Learned Hand
Judge · American · 1872 – 1961
Unfortunately it makes the unambiguous determination of triplets by these methods much more difficult than would be the case if there were only one triplet for each amino acid.
Francis Crick
Scientist · English · 1916 – 2004
There are so many things to take into account - your ambition, your ego, the press, the consumers. You can never be sure that you'll be on top of the pile again.
Giorgio Armani
Designer · Italian · b. 1934
This source of corruption, alas, is inherent in the democratic system itself, and it can only be controlled, if at all, by finding ways to encourage legislators to subordinate ambition to principle.
James L. Buckley
Politician · American · b. 1923
I would argue that the next President, either Bush or Gore, should strike a 'national' posture, exhibiting generosity toward the defeated opponent, but proceeding with determination to implement an agenda.
Richard V. Allen
Public Servant · American
There is nothing which any way pertaineth to the worship of God left to the determination of human laws.
George Gillespie
Theologian · Scottish
Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people's criticisms, carry out your plan.
Paul J. Meyer
Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme; to be sublimely great or to be nothing.
Shakti Gawain
Author · b. 1948
The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland.
James Larkin
Activist · Irish · 1875 – 1947
The most important thing is God's blessing and if you believe in God and you believe in yourself, you have nothing to worry about.
Mohamed Al-Fayed
Businessman · Egyptian · b. 1929
Never give in and never give up.
Hubert H. Humphrey
Politician · American · 1911 – 1978
The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.
Marquis De Vauvenargues
One of the things I have tried to do with this book and with all of them really is avoid that simple, easy, reductionist view of motivation and to show we do things for a complex net of reasons, a real braid of reasons.
Russell Banks
Author · American · b. 1940
Trusting in Christ, we may boldly join in the combat, and enlist ourselves among that disinterested band, who fight not for human ambition, or human praise, but for the honour of our Saviour, and the salvation of men.
John Strachan
Clergyman · Canadian · 1778 – 1867
I've continued to always keep in mind having a healthy does of that in Hollywood, now that I am part of the system and obviously have to follow the way the system works - you still have to have that crazy determination.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.
Abraham Lincoln
President · American · 1809 – 1865
I keep going over a sentence. I nag it, gnaw it, pat and flatter it.
Janet Flanner
Journalist · American · 1892 – 1978
Follow your dreams, believe in yourself and don't give up.
Rachel Corrie
Activist · American · 1979 – 2003
You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up.
Chuck Yeager
Aviator · American · b. 1923