Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest. — Thomas Sowell
Ambition may be defined as the willingness to receive any number of hits on the nose. — Wilfred Owen
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. — Abraham Lincoln
A politician will do anything to keep his job - even become a patriot. — William Randolph
Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable. — Joseph Joubert
Ambition is not a dirty word. Piss on compromise. Go for the throat. — Steven Erikson
Envious greed must govern to possess and ambition must possess to govern. — Egyptian Proverbs
Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them. — Napoleon Bonaparte
I shall be a good politician. Even if it kills me. Or if it kills anyone else, for that matter. — Mark Antony
Short Political Ambition Quotes
Ambition is priceless, its something that's in your veins. — Wale
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. — Elvis Presley
The treacheries of ambition never cease. — Ruben Dario
One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship. — Milton Friedman
Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals. — Sir John Denham
Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens. — William Lilly
Political Ambition Image Quotes
When words are both true and kind they can change the world.
Political Hope Quotes
Nil desperandum, -- Never Despair. That is a motto for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it. — Samuel Adams
Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair. — Bell Hooks
The anchor in our world today is freedom, holding us steady in times of change, a symbol of hope to all the world. — George H. W. Bush
Be gentle with yourself, you're doing the best you can.
To my great disappointment, it appears that the politics of division are making a big comeback. Many Americans share my disappointment - especially those who were filled with great hope a few years ago, when then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois. — Paul Ryan
When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown. — Stephen Jay Gould
In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? — Barack Obama
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, by the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
I don't believe in government. I hate politics. I'm against it. And I hope that sometime this fall, we can destroy part of our government, and next year destroy even more of it. The less government, the happier I will be. — Ray Bradbury
I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations. — Thomas Jefferson
Where there is discord may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. Where there is despair, may we bring hope. — Francis of Assisi
As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality. — George Washington
Political Apathy Quotes
Today's political climate does not allow the luxury of apathy. — Trent Reznor
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. — Plato
The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.
When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered. — Dorothy Thompson
The things you refuse to meet today always come back at you later on, usually under circumstances which make the decision twice as difficult as it originally was. — Eleanor Roosevelt
When too many Americans don't vote or participate, some see apathy and despair. I see disappointment and even outrage. And I believe that out of this frustration can come hope and action. — Paul Wellstone
Never turn down your ambition because someone is uncomfortable with the volume.
The media, far from being a conspiracy to dull the political sense of the people, could be viewed as a conspiracy to disguise the extent of political indifference. — David Riesman
the apathy and inattention of the average citizen is beyond comprehension. — Abigail McCarthy
Insect politics, indifferent universe. Bang your head against the wall, but apathy is worse. — Don Henley
Together, we will reclaim America's schools, before ignorance and apathy claim more young lives. — George W. Bush
Ambition Quotes
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. — Mark Twain
Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set. Then set your mark high, and step by step, even though it be by painful effort, by self-denial and sacrifice, ascend the whole length of the ladder of progress. — Ellen G. White
Be the person your dog thinks you are.
Be realistic, demand the impossible! — Che Guevara
Hell is not a place you go if you're not a Christian, it's the failure of your life's greatest ambition. — Immortal Technique
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. — Timothy Leary
Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.
We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own. — Cesar Chavez
Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense. — Alexander Hamilton
I emphasize that I am full of ambition and hope and of full charm of life. But I can renounce all at the time of need, and that is the real sacrifice. — Bhagat Singh
True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition is the profound desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God. — Bill W.
Selfish Ambition Quotes
Boys, be ambitious. Be ambitious not for money, not for selfish aggrandizement, not for the evanescent thing which men call fame. Be ambitious for the attainment of all that a man can be. — William Clark
You can want to be a top dog and, at the same time, be driven to help others. — Angela Duckworth
The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspires men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
We cannot free ourselves from pride and selfish ambition; a divine rescue is absolutely necessary. — C. J. Mahaney
Love makes money-grabbing seem contemptible; love makes class prejudice impossible; love makes selfish ambition a thing to be despised; love converts enemies into friends. — William Jennings Bryan
America was built on rugged individualism, and today that has evolved into a culture of narcissism. But God didn't create you to live for you. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to put aside your selfish ambition. — Rick Warren
The stronger you become, the gentler you will be.
Human nature must have come much nearer perfection than it is now, or will be in many generations, to exclude from such a control prejudice, selfishness, ambition, and injustice. — Elihu Root
Individuals motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, and a false sense of self-sufficiency pursue selfish ambition for the purpose of self-glorification. — C. J. Mahaney
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Philippians 2:3 — Bible
His enemies said he [Robert Kennedy] was consumed with selfish ambition, a ruthless opportunist exploiting his brother's legend. But he was too passionate and too vulnerable ever to be the cool and confident operator his brother was. — Jack Newfield
Blind Ambition Quotes
We got to roll with the punches, play all of our hunches, make the best of whatever comes your way. Forget that blind ambition, learn to trust your intuition - plowing straight ahead, come what may. — Jimmy Buffett
I always set my ambitions very high. You want to be the greatest athlete, but I realized that life is not about that. I was a little bit blind. — Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Forget that blind ambition, and learn to trust your intuition. — Jimmy Buffett
Being polite is so rare these days, thats its often confused with flirting.
People in America, of course, live in all sorts of fashions, because they are foreigners, or unlucky, or depraved, or without ambition; people live like that, but Americans live in white detached houses with green shutters. Rigidly, blindly, the dream takes precedence. — Margaret Mead
He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss. — Niccolo Machiavelli
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself And falls on the other side — William Shakespeare
Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, ut because you are.
The command to judge not is not a requirement to be blind, but rather a plea to be generous. Jesus does not tell us to cease to be men... but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God. — John Stott
God uses lust to impel men to marry, ambition to office, avarice to earning, and fear to faith. God led me like an old blind goat. — Martin Luther
Ambition is to the mind what the cap is to the falcon; it blinds us first, and then compels us to tower by reason of our blindness. — Charles Caleb Colton
Fortune is said to be blind, but her favorites never are. Ambition has the eye of the eagle, prudence that of the lynx; the first looks through the air, the last along the ground. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Life Ambition Quotes
We need spirited, energetic and strong young people whose hearts are filled with life, enthusiasm, zeal and dynamism; whose souls are full of ambition, aspiration and vigor and have great goals, rising and aspiring to reach them until they eventually arrive at their destination. — Hassan al-Banna
What is your ambition in life today? Is it to get rich? Is it to make a name for yourself? Is it even to do some wonderful thing for God? Listen to me, beloved. The highest desire that can possess any human heart is a longing to see God. — J. Vernon McGee
Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness. — Epicurus
Life passes most people by while they're making grand plans for it. — George Jung
Being the best means engineering your life so you never stop until you get what you want, and then you keep going until you get what’s next. And then you go for even more. — Tim Grover
I want the finer things in my life, so I hustle. — 50 Cent
My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil's most wanted list. — Leonard Ravenhill
All the people throughout my life who were naysayers pissed me off. But they've all given me a fervor; an angry ambition that cannot be stopped - and I look forward to finding a therapist and working on that. — Tobey Maguire
I told as much of my life as I could to encourage people: to encourage others to get to where they should be, where they want to be. — Folorunsho Alakija
My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. — Yann Martel
Great Ambition Quotes
As Christians, I challenge you. Have a great aim - have a high standard - make Jesus your ideal...make Him an ideal not merely to be admired but also to be followed. — Eric Liddell
By Gryffindor, the bravest were Prized far beyond the rest; For Ravenclaw, the cleverest Would always be the best; For Hufflepuff, hard workers were Most worthy of admission; And power-hungry Slytherin Loved those of great ambition. — J. K. Rowling
I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom. — Angus Grossart
When Jesus is truly our Lord, He directs our lives and we gladly obey Him. Indeed, we bring every part of our lives under His lordship - our home and family, our sexuality and marriage, our job or unemployment, our money and possessions, our ambitions and recreations. — John Stott
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. — Mark Twain
Believe this: Everything you need to be great is already inside you. All your ambitions and secrets, your darkest dreams . . . they’re waiting for you to just let go. — Tim Grover
We must always set the bar high, otherwise we do not progress. — Kylian Mbappe
Belief in oneself and knowing who you are, I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great. — Jay-Z
Always make your future bigger than your past. — Dan Sullivan
Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
High Ambition Quotes
When routine bites hard, and ambitions are low. When resentment rides high, but emotion won't grow...and we're changing our ways, taking different roads. Love will tear us apart. — Ian Curtis
The highly ambitious person, in spite of all his successes, always remains dissatisfied, in the same way as a greedy baby is never satisfied. — Melanie Klein
I finished my junior year of high school and flew out to Los Angeles. I didn't know the difference between a manager and an agent. But I got here and just started hustling and meeting anyone I could. — Jake Paul
Let us see how high we can fly before the sun melts the wax in our wings. — E. O. Wilson
It’s just the game itself that drives me. I just want to be able to compete at a high level. — Kawhi Leonard
I see Macbeth as a young, open-faced warrior, who is gradually sucked into a whirpool of events because of his ambition. When he meets the weird sisters and hears their prophecy, he's like the man who hopes to win a million - a gamble for high stakes. — Roman Polanski
If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles. — Karl von Clausewitz
When we make our art a practice, when we make our workspace sacred and enter it daily with respect and high intention, then we elevate our actions (even if they're taking place within the profane arena of commerce) beyond ego and above gimme-gimme ambition. — Steven Pressfield
Every time I tried to express my most heartfelt desires to be morally good I met with contempt and ridicule; and as soon as I would give in to vile passions I was praised and encouraged. Ambition, love of power, self-interest, lechery, pride, anger, vengeance-all of it was highly esteemed. — Leo Tolstoy
Being Ambitious Quotes
A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within....for the traitor appears not to be a traitor...he rots the soul of a nation...he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Further, Take heed that you faithfully perform the business you have to do in the world, from a regard to the commands of God; and not from an ambitious desire of being esteemed better than others. — David Brainerd
Don't be afraid to be ambitious about your goals. Hard work never stops. Neither should your dreams. — Dwayne Johnson
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 beyond it. — Arnold J. Toynbee
I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody's passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn't mind leading. — Amy Poehler
I knew that one day I would come to this point that I would make something so outrageous and so ambitious that... it'd be that Don Quixote feeling, that I'd have to tilt at a windmill. Sometimes you've got to do it. That's the only way you can do things. — Oliver Stone
Climbing is an artistic, creative thing; it's about being spontaneous, traveling, seeing the world, hanging out. It's a balance of setting goals while enjoying the process, being ambitious without being too competitive. — Chris Sharma
The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty. — Fisher Ames
Angels in America' - which is composed of two three-hour plays, 'Millennium Approaches' and 'Perestroika' - proved to be a watershed drama, the most lyrical and ambitious augury of an era since Tennessee Williams's 'The Glass Menagerie. — John Lahr
I absolutely adore and idolise women. All women. I think they are all amazing. The female musicians I've met have been far more inspiring than the male ones. Women tend to be much more creative and ambitious. I think I may have been a woman in a past life. — Robert Plant
Politics is the soil in which the nettle of poisonous enmity, evil suspicions, shameless lies, slander, morbid ambitions, and disrespect for the individual grows rapidly and luxuriantly. Name anything bad in man and it is precisely in the soil of political struggle that it grows with particular liveliness and abundance. — Maxim Gorky
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. — John Adams
Moscow, breathing fire like a human volcano with its smoldering lava of passion, ambition and politics, its hurly-burly of meetings and entertainment, Moscow is less than twenty miles away. It's always thirsting for something new, the newest events, the latest sensation. — Svetlana Alliluyeva
We have now an American political party and a European one. Not all Americans who vote for the European party want to become Europeans. But it doesn't matter because that's what they're voting for. They're voting for dependency, for lack of ambition, and for insolvency. — Harvey Mansfield
I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants ... I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office. — Thomas Jefferson
It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn. — George Washington
History consists, for the greater part, of the miseries brought upon the world by pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, lust, sedition, hypocrisy, ungoverned zeal, and all the train of disorderly appetite. — Edmund Burke
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. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
My political ambition
is not worth the blood of any Nigerian — Goodluck Jonathan
A small minority in Turkey even accuses me of having political ambitions, when in fact I have been struggling with various illnesses for many years. — Fethullah Gulen
... politics are nothing but sand and gravel: it is art and life that feed us until we die. Everything else is ambition, hysteria or hatred. — Louise Bogan
I have never had, nor will I ever have, any [political] ambitions. The only thing on which I have always set my heart is being able to gain God's good pleasure and, therefore, trying to make him known correctly and loved by humanity. — Fethullah Gulen
Above all, as the keynote of all Democratic policy, in passing upon any question, let the controlling aim and ambition be to keep the road open for private enterprise and personal initiative. — John W. Davis
Deep down, all of us are probably aware that some kind of mystical evolution is our true task. Yet we suppress the notion with considerable force because to admit it is to admit that most of our political gyrations, religious dogmas, social ambitions, and financial ploys are not merely counter-productive but trivial. — Tom Robbins
Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable. — John Adams
The gold standard makes the money's purchasing power independent of the changing, ambitions and doctrines of political parties and pressure groups. This is not a defect of the gold standard; it is its main excellence. — Ludwig von Mises
I've always been most interested in the politics of everyday life: your relation to whatever you're doing, or what your ambitions are, where you live, where you find yourself in the social hierarchy. — Richard Linklater
If you really want to become an actor, but only providing that acting doesn't interfere with your golf game, political ambitions and your life, you don't want to become an actor. Not only is acting more than a part time job, it's more than a full time job. It's a full time obsession. — Michael Caine
Politically, the goal of today’s dominant trend is statism. Philosophically, the goal is the obliteration of reason; psychologically, it is the erosion of ambition. — Ayn Rand
Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure. — Pat Riley
The big biography of Lincoln necessarily had to do so much with his political career, his ambitions, his accomplishments in public, with less time to spend on his private life, his inner life, and I thought this might be a way of getting at that. — David Herbert Donald
Among the droves of men with political ambitions in the United States, I found very few with that virile candor, that manly independence of thought, that often distinguished Americans in earlier times and that is invariably the preeminent trait of great characters wherever it exists. — Alexis de Tocqueville
The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism.... It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn. — George Washington
There's no secret about my ambition, I do not want to go into the House of Commons. My only real political interest is in London and if one day I'm in a position to run for mayor, then terrific. — Trevor Phillips
I'm not a political person. I usually beware of political persons. I know many, but I'm not one of them. I have no political ambitions. — Elie Wiesel
Eleanor Roosevelt is a political force of enormous ambitions. I believe she is a menace, unscrupulous as to truth, vain and cynical - all with a pretense of exaggerated kindness and human feeling which deceives millions of gullible persons. — Westbrook Pegler
When women oppose themselves to the projects and ambition of men, they excite their lively resentment; if in their youth they meddle with political intrigues, their modesty must suffer. — Madame de Stael
Ambition, and Covetousnesse are Passions that are perpetually incumbent, and pressing. — Thomas Hobbes
I have no political ambitions for myself or my children. — Joseph P. Kennedy
I really don't have tremendous political ambition. I have policy ambition. — Paul Ryan
I entered beauty pageants in much the same spirit most people enter politics - with high ideals and ambitions. Similarly, I had to make some adjustments here and there along the way. — Elizabeth Ray
It is quite possible that someone is insane and they think they have a chance. Not insane in the clinical sense, but they may have such a strong political ambition that they blind themselves to reality. — Davy Crockett
To know your place is a good idea in politics. That is not to say stay in your place or hang on to your place, because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place -- a feel for one's own position in the control room -- is useful in gauging what you should try to do. — William Safire
O.J. Simpson existed in a bubble. So when Harry Edwards approached him about being involved in the Olympic Project for Human Rights, O.J.'s response was, famously, "I'm not black - I'm O.J." O.J. had ambitions to be famous, rich and liked by everyone, and I think he understood that being political and militant as a black athlete was not a way to engender universal love. — Ezra Edelman
I'm not a political person, and their ambitions are not mine. They want power. I don't want power. — Elie Wiesel
At any time the atmosphere in the West could change, for which determined political will I do not see at the moment is a necessary prerequisite. From the sidelines, it seems that he's caught up in his own exorbitant ambitions. — Garry Kasparov
We are not going to waste our reserves and burn them for any political ambitions. We will act very carefully. — Vladimir Putin
The International Criminal Court, like most international institutions, is a wonderful idea. A noble idea. All it needs to work is planetary government, worldwide democracy and the triumph of reason over tribal loyalties, political doctrines and individual ambition. In other words, it requires that we all live in the world described by the "Star Trek" television shows. — James Lileks
I suppose I was about 20, and a crowd of us had been to a village hop and came back to make midnight cups of coffee. I was in the kitchen helping to dish up and having a fierce argument with one of the boys in the crowd when someone else interrupted to say: 'Of course Margaret, you will go into politics won't you?' I stopped dead. Suddenly it was crystalised for me. I knew. — Margaret Thatcher
Senators and presidents have climbed so high with pain enough, not because they think the place specially agreeable, but as an apology for real worth, and to vindicate their manhood in our eyes. This conspicuous chair is their compensation to themselves for being of a poor, cold, hard nature. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
My husband is a Democrat, and I am a Republican, so our political ambitions are on opposite ends. — Susan Ford
The ultimate consequences of the individualist spirit in economic life are those which you yourselves, Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, see and deplore: Free competition has destroyed itself; economic dictatorship has supplanted the free market; unbridled ambition for power has likewise succeeded greed for gain; all economic life has become tragically hard, inexorable, and cruel. — Pope Pius XI
A democratic constitution, not supported by democratic institutions in detail, but confined to the central government, not only is not political freedom, but often creates a spirit precisely the reverse, carrying down to the lowest grade in society the desire and ambition of political domination. — John Stuart Mill
I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in, or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. — John McCain
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