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Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Ambition and hard work are essential for achieving success.

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of both ambition and diligent effort in the pursuit of goals. It suggests that without a strong desire to achieve something (ambition), one will not even begin the path towards success, and without putting in the necessary work, one will not be able to complete what they start. Success is portrayed as something that cannot be passively received; rather, it must be actively pursued and earned.

Themes

AmbitionWorkSuccessEffortAchievement

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used during a motivational speech to inspire students to pursue their dreams.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
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Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
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Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
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Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
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The world belongs to the energetic.
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Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
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