The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Ambition
We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
John F. Kennedy Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort · 1962

Quotes

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.”

T. E. Lawrence · Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926 · Primary source

“It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal behind it.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“Hitch your wagon to a star.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Civilization, 1870 · Primary source

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

Helen Keller · The Story of My Life, 1903 · Primary source

“The American lives even more for his goals, for the future, than the European. Life for him is always becoming, never being.”

Albert Einstein · Ideas and Opinions , 1954 · Primary source

“The value of the goal lies in the goal itself; and therefore the goal cannot be attained unless it is pursued for its own sake.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“You ought to dream. All our biggest business men have been dreamers.”

Ernest Hemingway · The Sun Also Rises, 1926 · Primary source

“Everything tells me I shall succeed.”

Napoleon Bonaparte · Letter to Joseph Fesch, 1791 · Primary source

“Power is the goal of all ambition.”

Ian Fleming · Live and Let Die, 1954 · Primary source

“If you fail at the large things it means you have not large ambitions. Concentration, focus—that is all. The aptitudes come, the tools forge themselves. ‘Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world’—but only if the desire to move the world is there.”

Ian Fleming · Dr. No, 1958 · Primary source

“The world is not enough.”

Ian Fleming · On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 1963 · Primary source

“The President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Compensation, 1841 · Primary source

“I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars.”

T. E. Lawrence · Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926 · Primary source

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

Works

Napoleon Bonaparte · 1791
Letter to Joseph Fesch

A young Napoleon asks his uncle for financial help to reach Paris, while expressing confidence in his prospects despite hardship.

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Related Tags

Purpose 31 Independence 29 Action 23 Persistence 19 Effort 18 Imagination 16 Achievement 15 Opportunity 15 Aspiration 12 Power 11 Motivation 11 Focus 10 Human potential 10 Sacrifice 10 Love 8 Trade-offs 7 Concentration 6 Capability 6 Determination 5 Identity 5 Entrepreneurship 4 Work 4 Potential 4 Self-belief 3 Financial hardship 3 Status 3 Arab Revolt 3 Paris 3 National character 2 American society 2 Goals 2 Ideals 2 Moon landing 2 Space exploration 2 Apollo programme 2 Future orientation 1 Comparative culture 1 Dominance 1 Insatiability 1 Family motto 1 Presidency 1 Peace of mind 1 National effort 1 Practical action 1 Vision 1 Dedication to S.A. 1 Family correspondence 1 Early Napoleon 1