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How difficult the task to quench the fire and the pride of private ambition, and to sacrifice ourselves and all our hopes and expectations to the public weal! How few have souls capable of so noble an undertaking!

— Abigail Adams

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Ambition

More quotes by Abigail Adams

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.

Do not put such unlimited powers in the hands of the husband, Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.

If you complain of neglect of Education in sons, what shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it?

You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances.

Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.

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