I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life.
Bette DavisRead
I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success is a never-ending quest; achieving one goal only leads to the desire for another.
Bette Davis reflects on the nature of success, suggesting that the pursuit of accomplishment is an unending cycle. Each goal achieved opens up new aspirations, resulting in a continuous drive for improvement and productivity, often leading to feelings of dissatisfaction and restlessness.
Themes
SuccessGoalsAchievementEndlessSatisfaction
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would resonate well during a motivational speech about the relentless pursuit of excellence.
More from Bette Davis
All quotes βActing should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
Bette DavisRead
Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition.
Bette DavisRead
Once the love bug wears off, as it inevitably does, you are shocked to discover that you really didn't know the object of your affections at all. We know this to be so, even as we repeat the same mistake over and over and over.
Bette DavisRead
If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.
Bette DavisRead
You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.
Bette DavisRead
Similar quotes
We are producing something people can live without. But we need to keep thinking what would make our products a priority purchase even if they are not a necessity. If we stop doing that, no matter how successful Nintendo is at the moment, things will start going wrong in no time.
Satoru IwataRead
The only worthwhile achievements of man are those which are socially useful.
Alfred AdlerRead
The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want
Sam WaltonRead
Becoming rich isn't as much about getting rich financially as about whom you become, in character and mind, to get rich.
T. Harv EkerRead
As I've conducted my interviews with crowdsourcing entrepreneurs and experts, it's constantly hit me that your ability to do something big and bold is really a function of the size and quality of your crowd.
Peter DiamandisRead
Modern man is conditioned to expect instant gratification, but any success or triumph realized quickly, with only marginal effort, is necessarily shallow. Meaningful achievement takes time, hard work, persistence, patience, proper intent and self-awareness. The path to success is punctuated by failure, consolidation, and renewed effort.
Mark TwightRead