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Ambition is the death of thought.

— Elias Canetti Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

Ehrgeiz ist der Tod des Denkens.

Original text (German)

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 41
Work: Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock, 1987
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Elias Canetti

Relearn astonishment, stop grasping for knowledge, lose the habit of the past.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

Say the most personal thing, say it, nothing else matters, don’t be ashamed, the generalities can be found in the newspaper.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

I love writers who limit themselves, who write beneath their intelligence.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

He sometimes tells himself that there is nothing more to be said, simply because he won’t get around to saying it.—How contemptible!

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

“Life experience” does not amount to very much and could be learned from novels alone, e.g., from Balzac, without any help from life.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

The unconscious, which those who always speak of it least possess.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

Everything you rejected and pushed aside—take it up again.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

When he has nothing to say, he lets words speak.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

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Topics

Ambition

More quotes by Elias Canetti

His great holy books, which he does not know. They are so holy that he does not dare to open them.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

It amazes me how a person to whom literature means anything can take it up as an object of study.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

He will not do death the honor of taking it into account.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

If one has lived long enough, there is danger of succumbing to the word “God” merely because it was always there.

Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock (1987)

Everything one has forgotten cries for help in the dream.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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Attribution

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