Excellence famous quotes
05-22-2025
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Ten thousand times I've done my best and all's to do again.
-- A. E. Housman -
Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.
-- Abdul Kalam -
I don't settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?
-- Adriana Trigiani -
Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise; to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence.
-- Aeschylus -
The pursuit of perfection is frustrating and a waste of time, because nothing is ever perfect. The pursuit of excellence is commendable and worthwhile. Therefore strive for excellence not perfection.
-- Alan Kulwicki -
The Dark Side of the Moon has flash - the true flash that comes from the excellence of a superb performance.
-- Alan Parsons -
Reading is the occupation of the insomniac par excellence.
-- Alberto Manguel -
What's wrong with creative block? Might it not just be that periods--even extended ones--of productive hiatus are essential mechanisms of gestation designed to help us attain higher standards in our pursuit of creative excellence?
-- Alexi Murdoch -
PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic.
-- Ambrose Bierce -
Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America.
-- Amy Chua -
Nike has always been a business about excellence and achievement.
-- Andrew Young -
Recognise excellence. Celebrate weirdness and innovation. Oddballs should be cherished, if they can do something other people can't do.
-- Anthony Bourdain -
I want to explore and do things with excellence. I want to write songs that resonate with me and will resonate with a live audience. I'm exploring fresh sounds.
-- Anthony Evans -
Merely to have survived is not an index of excellence.
-- Anthony Hecht -
I believe in striving for excellence. I sweat the big and small stuff! I do not apologize for this.
-- Anthony S. Fauci -
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.
-- Aristotle -
If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.
-- Aristotle -
There is an ideal of excellence for any particular craft or occupation; similarly there must be an excellent that we can achieve as human beings. That is, we can live our lives as a whole in such a way that they can be judged not just as excellent in this respect or in that occupation, but as excellent, period. Only when we develop our truly human capacities sufficiently to achieve this human excellent will we have lives blessed with happiness.
-- Aristotle -
Happiness is the utilization of one's talents along lines of excellence.
-- Aristotle -
The virtues [moral excellence] therefore are engendered in us neither by nature nor yet in violation of nature; nature gives us the capacity to receive them, and this capacity is brought to maturity by habit.
-- Aristotle -
Of cases where a man is truthful both in speech and conduct when no considerations of honesty come in, from an habitual sincerity of disposition. Such sincerity may be esteemed a moral excellence; for the lover of truth, who is truthful even when nothing depends on it, will a fortiori be truthful when some interest is at stake, since having all along avoided falsehood for its own sake, he will assuredly avoid it when it is morally base; and this is a disposition that we praise.
-- Aristotle -
a masterpiece doesn't so much transcend its time as perpetuate it; it keeps its moment alive.
-- Arlene Croce -
Excellence is the eternal quest. We achieve it by living up to our highest intellectual standards and our finest moral intuitions. In seeking excellence, take life seriously-but never yourself!
-- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. -
The Grammys are supposed to be awards for artistic excellence… Iggy Azalea’s not excellent,
-- Azealia Banks -
There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
-- Baltasar Gracian -
I'm not interested in a marketable product: I'm interested in what I know from my life experience to be standards of excellence
-- Barney Kessel -
One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once, life would collapse. There are simply no definitive answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
-- Barry Lopez -
All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
-- Baruch Spinoza -
Those who would attain to any marked degree of excellence in a chosen pursuit must work, and work hard for it, prince or peasant.
-- Bayard Taylor -
'Live each day as if it is your last,' said Mahatma Gandhi. 'Learn as if you'll live forever.' This is what I'm passionate about. It is precisely this. It is this inextinguishable, undaunted appetite for learning and experience, no matter how risible, no matter how esoteric, no matter how seditious it might seem.
-- Benjamin B. Dunlap -
The photographer is the contemporary being par excellence; through his eyes the now becomes the past.
-- Berenice Abbott -
I have a 41-year track record of investing excellence… what do you have?
-- Bill Gross -
Personally, I always felt times aren't so excellent as are performances.
-- Bill Rodgers -
My father once told me that anyone who worked for three dollars an hour owed it to himself to put in four dollars' worth of work.
-- Bill Russell -
Do more than you're supposed to do and you can have or be or do anything you want.
-- Bill Sands -
As far as I'm concerned, the sheriff's department has done an excellent job in Savoy. The department has responded to the needs of our citizens, so I don't want to mess with a system that is working well for us.
-- Bill Smith -
Design can be both a manifestation of a company's design ethic and an outward communication of a company's design ethic and drive for excellence.
-- Bob Lutz -
It is only through raising expectations and striving for excellence that our children can reach their full potential.
-- Brad Henry -
Aspire greatly; anything less than a commitment to excellence becomes an acceptance of mediocrity.
-- Brian Tracy -
Personal development is your springboard to personal excellence. Ongoing, continuous, non-stop personal development literally assures you that there is no limit to what you can accomplish.
-- Brian Tracy -
Set excellent performance as your standard and strive to achieve it each day
-- Brian Tracy -
The foundation of lasting self-confidence and self esteem is excellence, mastery of your work.
-- Brian Tracy -
Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends.
-- Brian Tracy -
Your earning ability is largely determined by the perception of excellence, quality, and value that others have of you and what you do. The market only pays excellent rewards for excellent performance. It pays average rewards for average performance, and it pays below average rewards or unemployment for below average performance.
-- Brian Tracy -
There's an entire flight simulator hidden in every copy of Microsoft Excel 97.
-- Bruce Schneier -
When you say you'll meet someone at 11:00 AM, be there at 10:45. When you promise a check on the 30th, send it on the 28th. Whatever you agree to do, do it a bit more. Start with your employees, then extend it to everyone you deal with. News will soon get around that you are a person of your word.
-- C. P. Scott -
Perfection belongs to the Gods; the most we can hope for is excellence.
-- Carl Jung -
Life is teleology par excellence; it is the intrinsic striving towards a goal, and the living organism is a system of directed aims which seek to fulfill themselves.
-- Carl Jung -
The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value
-- Charles Dudley Warner -
The method of doubt must be applied to civilization; we must doubt its necessity, its excellence, and its permanence.
-- Charles Fourier -
The fact is, the difference between peak performers and everybody else are much smaller than everybody else thinks.
-- Charles Garfield -
To be in Christ is the source of the Christian life; to be like Christ is the sum of his excellence; to be with Christ is the fullness of his joy.
-- Charles Hodge -
No student ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him: it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required, that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.
-- Charles Kendall Adams -
Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
-- Charles Kingsley -
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters.
-- Charles R. Swindoll -
Moral excellence is the bright consummate flower of all progress.
-- Charles Sumner -
Excellence is about fighting and pursuing something diligently, with a strict and determined approach to doing it right. It's okay if there are flaws in the process - it makes it more interesting.
-- Charlie Trotter -
I never considered Miles Davis a perfectionist; I always considered him as an excellence-ist, where deviation is actually kind of cool.
-- Charlie Trotter -
Find something that you're really interested in doing in your life. Pursue it, set goals, and commit yourself to excellence. Do the best you can.
-- Chris Evert -
The quality of racing continues to excel with starters increasing to 1496,.
-- Christopher Nolan -
The secret of architectural excellence is to translate the proportions of a dachshund into bricks, mortar and marble.
-- Christopher Wren -
I've spent my life pursuing excellence as an artist, which is what I always wanted to do anyhow.
-- Claire Bloom -
Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude
-- Colin Powell -
Hunger for excellence. Continuously seek inspiration to make your work better.
-- Cory Trepanier -
It seems that more people today have a greater desire to live long than they do to live well.
-- Croft M. Pentz -
Perfectionism is not as much the desire for excellence, as it is the fear of failure couched in procrastination .
-- Dan Miller -
How sad that we often diminish our best gifts by struggling valiantly to develop in someone else's area of ability. It is better to focus on your uniqueness and do that with excellence than to end up with mediocrity in several areas.
-- Dan Miller -
Aim not to win or succeed, but for excellence in the moment.
-- Dan Millman -
The power of excellence is overwhelming. It is always in demand, and nobody cares about its color.
-- Daniel James, Jr. -
Trying to compromise EXCELLENCE, is like trying to let a little bit of air out of a balloon with a hat pin.
-- Daniel R. Scoggin -
Set out to do three or four things this year with gusto and excellence, rather than doing a dozen things just sufficiently. Trust me on this.
-- Danielle LaPorte -
But, I don't want to assume that our tradition of excellence is a guarantee of future excellence.
-- Dave Heineman -
No publisher in America improved a paper so quickly on so grand a scale, took a paper that was marginal in qualities and brought it to excellence as Otis Chandler did.
-- David Halberstam -
Believe passionately in what you do, and never knowingly compromise your standards and values. Act like a true professional, aiming for true excellence, and the money will follow.
-- David Maister -
Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.
-- David Ogilvy -
The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
-- David Ogilvy -
Excellence is the best weapon against prejudice.
-- David Oyelowo -
whenever I read a passage that moves me, I transcribe it in my diary, hoping my fingers might learn what excellence feels like.
-- David Sedaris -
There is no real excellence in all this world which can be separated from right living.
-- David Starr Jordan -
The Olympics remain the most compelling search for excellence that exists in sport, and maybe in life itself.
-- Dawn Fraser -
Being an Olympian, I always have this strong belief in excellence.
-- Debi Thomas -
Pursue excellence and ignore success. If you are excellent you will be successful
-- Deepak Chopra -
By persistent labor man may attain to all excellence.
-- Demosthenes -
Identify with excellence, put your name on your work, and both your work and name will stand the test of time.
-- Denis Waitley -
I was made to be a perfectionist at everything I did. Everything was more important than what I wanted.
-- Dennis Quaid -
Its hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.
-- Dolly Parton -
Strive for perfection, but settle for excellence.
-- Don Shula -
Perfection, fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity. A more sensible alternative is excellence. Striving for excellence is stimulating and rewarding; striving for perfection--in practically anything--is both neurotic and futile.
-- Ed Bliss -
The Greek temple is the creation, par excellence, of mind and spirit in equilibrium.
-- Edith Hamilton -
Poetry is an art, and chief of the fine art; the easiest to dabble in, the hardest in which to reach true excellence.
-- Edmund Clarence Stedman -
I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.
-- Edsger Dijkstra -
It is the growth of advertising in this country which, more than any single element, has brought the American magazine to its present enviable position in points of literary, illustrative and mechanical excellence.
-- Edward Bok -
Be satisfied with nothing but your best.
-- Edward Rowland Sill -
The more we sympathize with excellence, the more we go out of self, the more we love, the broader and deeper is our personality.
-- Edwin Hubbel Chapin -
Mediocre men work at their best; men seeking excellence strive to do better.
-- Edwin Louis Cole -
it is more to my personal happiness and advantage to indulge the love and admiration of excellence, than to cherish a secret envy of it.
-- Elizabeth Montagu -
We want our children to fit in and to stand out. We rarely address the conflict between these goals.
-- Ellen Goodman -
Love remains a relation with the Other that turns into need, transcendent exteriority of the other, of the beloved. But love goes beyond the beloved... The possibility of the Other appearing as an object of a need while retaining his alterity, or again,the possibility of enjoying the Other... this simultaneity of need and desire, or concupiscence and transcendence,... constitutes the originality of the erotic which, in this sense, is the equivocal par excellence.
-- Emmanuel Levinas -
The readiness to praise others indicates a desire for excellence and perhaps an ability to realize it.
-- Eric Hoffer
