“Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us.”

"On True Happiness", Pennsylvania Gazette (20 November 1735).
1730s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us." by Benjamin Franklin?
Benjamin Franklin photo
Benjamin Franklin 183
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… 1706–1790

Related quotes

Jean de La Bruyère photo

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

Le sage guérit de l'ambition par l'ambition même; il tend à de si grandes choses, qu'il ne peut se borner à ce qu'on appelle des trésors, des postes, la fortune et la faveur.
Aphorism 43
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel

Mark Kingwell photo

“Ambition is ever tempered by experience. Otherwise, fortune makes fools of us all.”

Mark Kingwell (1963) Canadian philosopher

Source: The World We Want (2000), Chapter 3, Virtues And Vices, p. 77.

Elizabeth Gaskell photo
Edward Teller photo

“All of us can be excellent, because, fortunately, we are exceedingly diverse in our ambitions and talents.”

Edward Teller (1908–2003) Hungarian-American nuclear physicist

As quoted in The Martians of Science : Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century (2006) by István Hargittai, p. 251
Context: I believe in excellence. It is a basic need of every human soul. All of us can be excellent, because, fortunately, we are exceedingly diverse in our ambitions and talents.

Frances Hodgson Burnett photo
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.

“Our Heavenly Father has been good to us and this goodness needs to be shared with the less fortunate, especially at this difficult moment.”

Felix Toppo (1947)

Source: India: Ranchi Church offers free lunch to relatives of Covid-19 patients https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2021-05/india-ranchi-archdiocese-free-lunch-families-covid.html (4 May 2021)

Jean Cocteau photo

“See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Diary of an Unknown (1988)

John F. Kennedy photo

“There is no need for us to be satisfied with a rate of growth that keeps good men out of work and good capacity out of use.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

Related topics