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"Ambition, Rose. It squeezes us into corners and turns out ugly shapes."

— Tim Winton Cloudstreet (1991)

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Ambition

More quotes by Tim Winton

"It's the saddest sight to see, Scully, a man lettin his own life slip through his hands."

The Riders (1994)

"It does you good to be tenants. It reminds you of your own true position in the world."

Cloudstreet (1991)

There isn't one thing in the world hot and hard as knowing there's someone waiting, coming, pressing, wanting you.

The Shepherd's Hut (2018)

"Hoping is what people do when they're too lazy to do anything else."

Cloudstreet (1991)

You spend your whole life trying to work out where you fit.

That Eye, the Sky (1986)

All Tim Winton 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: Tim Winton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.