Don’t believe people who think or imply that working toward a goal is unseemly.
Healthy ambition is never a bad thing.
Setting and reaching goals is the backbone of a fulfilling life.
Your targets needn’t be huge, but they should mean something to you.
So, to help pump you up, we’ve compiled a list of quotes about ambition and goals.
Bookmark and return when you need to jump-start your motivation.
35 Ambition Quotes to Light a Fire Under You
Are you in the market for quotes about ambition? If so, you’ve landed in the right place. So, please enjoy our list of motivating quotes to light a fire under you.
Post a few where you can see them every morning to start your day with initiative and enthusiasm.
1. “Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “There is one weakness in people for which there is no remedy. It is the universal weakness of lack of ambition.” – Napoleon Hill
3. “You have the patience, the strength and the passion to achieve your ambitions, your goals and your dreams. All you have to do now is try.” – Candid Blog
4. “There is hope in dreams, imagination, and in the courage of those who wish to make those dreams a reality.” – Jonas Salk
5. “Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.” – Thomas Otway
6. “A man without ambition is like a beautiful worm–it can creep, but it cannot fly.” – Henry Ward Beecher
7. “Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes; The glorious fault of Angels and of Gods.” – Alexander Pope
8. “Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
9. “Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme, to be sublimely great, or to be nothing.” – Thomas Southerne
10. “Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.” – Jonathan Swift
11. “Say what we will, we may be sure that ambition is an error. Its wear and tear on the heart are never recompensed.” – Edward Bulwer-Lytton
12. “Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.” – Edgar Bergen
13. “Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame, A grave to rest in, and a fading name!” – William Winter
14. “Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.” – Quintilian
15. “Most people would succeed in small things, if they were not troubled with great ambitions.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
16. “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
17. “Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live.” ― Criss Jami
18. “Ambition can creep as well as soar.” — Edmund Burke
19. “Ambition is not a dirty word. Piss on compromise. Go for the throat.” ― Steven Erikson
20. “Being ambitious is actually good as long as you do not step on other people’s toes and provides inspiration to fellow men.” —Sara Wellington
21. “The best is the enemy of good.” ― Voltaire
22. “If you’re waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you’ll never make it.” ― Criss Jami
23. “An average person with average talents and ambition and average education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals.” — Mary Kay
24. “Failure is only postponed success as long as courage ‘coaches’ ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.” — Herbert Kaufman
25. “It doesn’t matter how great your shoes are if you don’t accomplish anything in them.” ― Martina Boone
26. “There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.” — Henry vanDyke
27. “The difference between greed and ambition is a greedy person desires things he isn’t prepared to work for.” ― Habeeb Akande
28. “A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.” — Pearl Bailey
29. “Ambition is the epicenter of perseverance through which accomplishments spell success.” — Byron Pulsifer
30. “Your ambitions and desires should always be within your control and to benefit you.” — Victoria Michael
31. “The biggest changes in a women’s nature are brought by love; in man, by ambition.” ― Tagore
32. “Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it.” ― Jonathan Stroud
33. “Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?” ― William Hundert
34. “People with ambition don’t give a damn what other people think of them.” ― Diane Setterfield
35. “Anyone ambitious, who lives to be old or even old, endures the inevitable loss of ambition’s fulfillment.” ― Donald Hall
Final Thoughts
We hope you found our ambitious quotes soothing and inspiring.
We know you’ve got this; don’t listen to anyone who says or suggests otherwise.
Play to your talents, cultivate confidence, and work hard. Sure, you may not achieve every goal in your stable. That’s normal.
But trying can be just as satisfying. May the force — and every ounce of luck — be with you!
