Ambrose Bierce Quotes

Ambition, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.

Ambrose Bierce

• Friends
• Desire
• Ambition

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Quotes to Explore

• In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

  

  Salvador Dali
  • Society
  • Respect
  • Talent

• A historical romance is the only kind of book where chastity really counts.

  

  Barbara Cartland
  • Book
  • Kind
  • Where

• Only twice have I really had a hard time leaving a character. The first was my character in 'Rome' and then in 'Homeland.'

  

  Zuleikha Robinson
  • Time
  • Character
  • Leaving

• I like men who paint or write or do something creative.

  

  Olga Kurylenko
  • Men
  • Creative
  • Paint

• Banks are concerned the central bank is imposing too many regulations. If the trend continues, we'll swing to heavy regulation. We need to have balanced regulation to encourage the economy.

  

  Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair
  • Need
  • Economy
  • Bank

• Only those ignorant of what poetry means will ask the question: what is it good for?

  

  Orson F. Whitney
  • Good
  • Question
  • Poetry

• Yoghurt cuts sweetness and richness, tempers spice, and makes a dish sing.

  

  Yotam Ottolenghi
  • Sweetness
  • Richness
  • Spice

• In 1993, when I landed in Zimbabwe, there were just 10 psychiatrists in that country of 10 million people. Nine of the 10 were foreigners who spoke no regional language.

  

  Vikram Patel
  • People
  • Country
  • Language

• As an actor, I want to build a career as an actor. It's hard to even get a job sometimes, so as my career builds, I can be more picky than I used to be.

  

  Randy Wayne
  • Job
  • Career
  • Want

• In Iraq, many of my female friends were architects and professionals with a lot of power during the 1980s while all the men were at war in Iran.

  

  Zaha Hadid
  • Men
  • Power
  • Friends

• Sometimes, I'm an ogre. I can be short. I'll walk into the office some days and I've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, and everybody knows it. I'm a perfectionist. I like to be organized, and I like to get everything done today.

  

  Jack Nicklaus
  • Up
  • Done
  • Today

• I think I have a strange relationship with time. I'm not really aware of that time passing. I don't feel that I'm wasteful with time. But I'm not aware of it passing.

  

  Daniel Day-Lewis
  • Time
  • Think
  • Relationship

• Celebrity life and media culture are probably the most overbearing pop-cultural conditions that we as young people have to deal with, because it forces us to judge ourselves.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • People
  • Life
  • Culture

• I graduated from the University of Whatever.

  

  Dana Snyder
  • University
  • Graduation

• What really matters is what you do with what you have.

  

  H. G. Wells
  • You
  • Really
  • Matters

• I love my job so much, and not everyone can say that and I recognize how lucky that is.

  

  Larisa Oleynik
  • Job
  • Say
  • Lucky

• I was a late bloomer. I was 38 when my first book was out and 43 when my first crime novel was out. I had a story that could only be told as a crime story. I think the genre is good; it deals with the fundamental questions of life and death. The problem is there are too many bad crime stories.

  

  Hakan Nesser
  • Life
  • Good
  • Book

• A man really determines himself by what he does.

  

  Vin Scully
  • Man
  • Really
  • Himself

• Some newer writers worry about books set in Canada having a big appeal, but it has never been an issue for me. I haven't wanted to write in the States because I don't know the States.

  

  Chevy Stevens
  • Worry

• I'm fascinated by adult women who don't have close friends and how that could come to be. I think when you're a kid, the relationships are so intimate, and you're so connected to your girls, so what becomes of them? What could possibly happen to have you become an adult woman and no longer have that?

  

  Jacqueline Woodson
  • Women
  • Friends

• Yeah, Dundee was great. It was a great film. I fell in love with my Mexican wife on Dundee.

  

  Sam Peckinpah
  • Great
  • Wife
  • Film

• τοῖς ἐγρηγορόσιν ἕνα καὶ κοινὸν κόσμον εἶναι, τῶν δὲ κοιμωμένων ἕκαστον εἰς ἴδιον ἀποστρέφεσθαι

  

  Plutarch

• Medicine is a collection of uncertain prescriptions, the results of which, taken collectively, are more fatal than useful to mankind.

  

  Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Medicine
  • Collection
  • Prescriptions

• Ambition, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.

  

  Ambrose Bierce
  • Friends
  • Desire
  • Ambition