--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on…" description: "\"Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d00/susan-sontag-332_ambition_ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-t_357149.jpg" --- # Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of… ![“Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d00/susan-sontag-332_ambition_ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-t_357149.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d00/susan-sontag-332_ambition_ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-t_357149.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d00/susan-sontag-332_ambition_ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-t_357149.jpg) > “Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Ambition grows when it draws on the ambitions of others, suggesting interdependence. **In simple terms:** Ambition thrives on shared drive. Key Takeaway Foster collaborative aspirations. Themes ambition interdependence influence Mood thoughtful inspirational Type philosophical motivational When to use this quote - career planning - creative projects - team building Key Concepts Social capital motivation dynamics Questions to Reflect On - How can you nurture personal ambition without dependency? - What role does community play in personal success? A Different Perspective Overreliance on others can hinder individuality. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Ambition](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ambition/) [Motivation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/motivation/) [Work](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/work/) ## Related quotes > [Ambition is not what a man would do, but what a man does, for ambition without action is fantasy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryant-h-mcgill/ambition-is-not-what-a-man-would-do-but-what-a-man-does-for-ambition/) [Bryant H. McGill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryant-h-mcgill/) > [I'm a guy who feeds off the energy of the fans heavily.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/davante-adams/i-m-a-guy-who-feeds-off-the-energy-of-the-fans-heavily/) [Davante Adams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/davante-adams/) > [Ambition can be a disease, and it feeds on itself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-miller/ambition-can-be-a-disease-and-it-feeds-on-itself/) [Rebecca Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rebecca-miller/) > [Society feeds terror and is in turn terrorized; we are afraid to lose, so we consume.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alejandro-jodorowsky/society-feeds-terror-and-is-in-turn-terrorized-we-are-afraid-to-lose/) [Alejandro Jodorowsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alejandro-jodorowsky/) > [Twitter is the first information that I ingest in the morning. When there are important things happening, friends of mine who follow news feeds…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alison-brie/twitter-is-the-first-information-that-i-ingest-in-the-morning-when/) [Alison Brie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alison-brie/) > [I would say the referees have the toughest game to call. I would say that there's a lot of officiating done by announcers, local…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-stern/i-would-say-the-referees-have-the-toughest-game-to-call-i-would-say/) [David Stern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-stern/) > [Catering to bad feelings feeds and empowers them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joyce-meyer/catering-to-bad-feelings-feeds-and-empowers-them/) [Joyce Meyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joyce-meyer/) > [The great thing about a culture is that once you really get it going, it evolves on its own. It's self-organizing. It's dynamic. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-mackey/the-great-thing-about-a-culture-is-that-once-you-really-get-it-going/) [John Mackey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-mackey/) > [How is it that the sky feeds the stars?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucretius/how-is-it-that-the-sky-feeds-the-stars/) [Lucretius](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucretius/) > [The mind is made up by what it feeds upon.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-james/the-mind-is-made-up-by-what-it-feeds-upon/) [William James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-james/) > [Wood feeds the fire which burns it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leonardo-da-vinci/wood-feeds-the-fire-which-burns-it/) [Leonardo da Vinci](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leonardo-da-vinci/) > [It fills me with a weird rage to wear shoes that make me not able to walk easily or run if I had to.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-silverman/it-fills-me-with-a-weird-rage-to-wear-shoes-that-make-me-not-able-to/) [Sarah Silverman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-silverman/) > [“Once the hand that feeds you fails, you are free to bite away!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/once-the-hand-that-feeds-you-fails-you-are-free-to-bite-away/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [Theater feeds my heart and soul.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-ramirez/theater-feeds-my-heart-and-soul/) [Sara Ramirez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-ramirez/) > [Many American TV actors employ agents, managers, business managers, publicists and stylists, and are now adding digital media manager to the list. Their job…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gina-bellman/many-american-tv-actors-employ-agents-managers-business-managers/) [Gina Bellman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gina-bellman/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Ambition quotes > [Ambition drives you on, ability certainly helps, but the fickle finger of fate and luck are great things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fergus-henderson/ambition-drives-you-on-ability-certainly-helps-but-the-fickle-finger/) [Fergus Henderson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fergus-henderson/) > [One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jessye-norman/one-needs-more-than-ambition-and-talent-to-make-a-success-of-anything/) [Jessye Norman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jessye-norman/) > [I just think my own ambition would not allow me to sit on the gifts that my creator had given me. And so that's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janelle-monae/i-just-think-my-own-ambition-would-not-allow-me-to-sit-on-the-gifts/) [Janelle Monae](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janelle-monae/) > [A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/a-man-s-worth-is-no-greater-than-the-worth-of-his-ambitions/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I'm hungry and ambitious.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julen-lopetegui/i-m-hungry-and-ambitious/) [Julen Lopetegui](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julen-lopetegui/) > [“I was ambitious and desperate to direct my first film, so I capitulated and blew it. Never again. Never fucking again.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-ferguson/i-was-ambitious-and-desperate-to-direct-my-first-film-so-i/) [Craig Ferguson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-ferguson/) > [I was always attracted most to joining City, and I am pleased to be at such a good club with such a big ambition…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edin-dzeko/i-was-always-attracted-most-to-joining-city-and-i-am-pleased-to-be-at/) [Edin Dzeko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edin-dzeko/) > [Work towards your goal and dont watch the post size,its either they hate,or like you.there is no room for both sides.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaac-buabeng/work-towards-your-goal-and-dont-watch-the-post-size-its-either-they/) [Isaac Buabeng](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaac-buabeng/) > [“But young men have not only this frivolous ambition of being thought masters of execution, inciting them on the one hand, but also their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/but-young-men-have-not-only-this-frivolous-ambition-of-being-thought/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I almost never have a plan for myself... I'm not ambitious in that way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martha-plimpton/i-almost-never-have-a-plan-for-myself-i-m-not-ambitious-in-that-way/) [Martha Plimpton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martha-plimpton/) > [I play for high stakes and given an audience - there is no act too daring or too noble.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winston-churchill/i-play-for-high-stakes-and-given-an-audience-there-is-no-act-too/) [Winston Churchill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winston-churchill/) > [There's nothing worse than a leader who lacks ambition.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/there-s-nothing-worse-than-a-leader-who-lacks-ambition/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [If i can't even protect my captain's dream, then whatever ambition i have is nothing but talk..](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zoro/if-i-can-t-even-protect-my-captain-s-dream-then-whatever-ambition-i/) [Zoro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zoro/) > [It may seem unattainable but if you put actions, your heart and your mind into it, you will prevail.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/london-mond/it-may-seem-unattainable-but-if-you-put-actions-your-heart-and-your/) [London Mond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/london-mond/) > [Obligation is what's leading us to toward successful, and what keeps us moving towards the future.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wazim-shaw/obligation-is-what-s-leading-us-to-toward-successful-and-what-keeps/) [Wazim Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wazim-shaw/) [Browse all 4,601 Ambition quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ambition/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-the-ambition-of-others/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Ambition" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-the-ambition-of-others/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d00/susan-sontag-332_ambition_ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-t_357149.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d00/susan-sontag-332_ambition_ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-t_357149.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d00/susan-sontag-332_ambition_ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-t_357149.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Ambition, if it feeds at all,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-the-ambition-of-others/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/ambition-if-it-feeds-at-all-does-so-on-the-ambition-of-others/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```