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“It must be a real one-horse town.”
Auger shook her head as she lit a cigarette. “It has wild ambitions of becoming a one-horse town.”

— Alastair Reynolds Century Rain (2004)

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Ambition

More quotes by Alastair Reynolds

There’s nothing like a stupid, accidental death to remind you of the supreme futility of everything.

Belladonna Nights and Other Stories (2021)

Ghosts are not the souls of the dead, but the souls of people written out of history when history changes.

Deep Navigation (2010)

You are that rarest of creatures: a man with the wisdom to see beyond his own time.

The Prefect (2007)

Truth is truth, no matter who else believes it.

Troika (2010)

I’ll argue to the death against stupid legislation, but some rules exist for a reason.

On the Steel Breeze (2013)

All Alastair Reynolds quotes →

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Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.

Étienne de La Boétie Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

Emil Cioran The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.

Jean de La Bruyère Les Caractères (1688)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alastair Reynolds (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.