Rescuing Ambition Quotes

“So we’re tempted to despair—the despair of the not-as-great-as-we-want-to-be. Charles Spurgeon’s epitaph on Alexander could easily describe one way we can go: See Alexander’s tears! He weeps! Yes, he weeps for another world to conquer! Ambition is insatiable! The gain of the whole world is not enough. Surely to become a universal monarch, is to make one’s self universally miserable.13”
― Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition

“What motivates Olympic athletes to train for years for one event—in some cases, for just seconds of actual competition? It’s the same thing that kept my friend Pete nosing around old bookstores for years. It’s the same thing that makes a person venture out of a comfortable job to start a new business. We see it in the artist who spends day after day in a studio chipping away at a block of stone. Look closely and you’ll find it in the shopper who passes up the good deal in search of the best deal. It’s one of the things that makes us most human. We consciously pursue what we value. It’s not simply a matter of being driven by biology or genetics or environmental conditioning to satisfy instinctive cravings. Rather, we perceive something, prize it at a certain value, then pursue it according to that assigned value because we were created that way. This ability to perceive, prize, and pursue is part of our essential humanness, and it’s the essence of ambition.”
― Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition

“Waiting takes our definition of productivity to school. It tutors us to connect our agenda not to personal achievement but to God’s glory. Then we can bear God’s fruit, satisfied that his list is accomplished during our day, even when ours is not. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).”
― Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition

“True humility doesn't kill our dreams; it provides a guardrail for them.”
― Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition

“Godly ambition makes us downwardly mobile.”
― Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition