An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON EXCELLENCE 1
The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.
Shana Alexander (1925-, American writer, editor)
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)
It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible.
Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)
You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event -- it is a habit.
Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)
Don't do nothing halfway, else you find yourself dropping more than can be picked up.
Louis Armstrong (1898-1971, American jazz trumpeter, singer)
Whatever you do, don't do it halfway.
Bob Beamon (1946-, American track athlete)
Resolve to make each day the very best and don't let anyone get in your way. If they do, step on them.
Ivan Benson
The key to Operations at Wal-Mart is their ability to maintain the highest standards while at the same time getting things done with lockstep execution.
Michael Bergdahl (American professional speaker, consultant, author)
It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are.
Wendell Berry (1934-, American social critic)
People who produce good results feel good about themselves.
Ken Blanchard (American business lecturer, author) Author's website: www.kenblanchard.com
All you owe the public is a good performance.
Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957, American film actor)
Do your work; not just your work and no more, but a little more for the lavishing's sake -- that little more which is worth all the rest.
Dean Briggs (1965-, American drummer, "Whitekaps")
Try to be the best of what you are, even if what you are is no good™.
Ashleigh Brilliant (1933-, British-American humorist) Author's website: www.ashleighbrilliant.com
A racehorse that consistently runs just a second faster than another horse is worth millions of dollars more. Be willing to give that extra effort that separates the winner from the one in second place.
H. Jackson Brown Jr. (1940-, American author, "Life's Little Instruction Book" series)
One of the most essential things you need to do for yourself is to choose a goal that is important to you. Perfection does not exist -- you can always do better and you can always grow.
Les Brown (1945-, American speaker, author, trainer, motivator,)
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.
Les Brown (1945-, American speaker, author, trainer, motivator,)
Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919, American industrialist, philanthropist)
When you see good qualities in a person, think of how to rise to that level. When you see bad qualities in a person, reflect inwards and examine your weak points.
Confucius (BC 551-479, Chinese ethical teacher, philosopher)
I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519, Italian inventor, architect, painter, scientist, sculptor)
There seems to be one quality of mind which seems to be of special and extreme advantage in leading him to make discoveries. It was the power of never letting exceptions go unnoticed.
Francis Darwin
It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.
Isaac Disraeli (1766-1848, British critic, historian)
I start where the last man left off.
Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931, American inventor, founder of GE)
There's a way to do better... find it.
Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931, American inventor, founder of GE)
Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
George Eliot (1819-1880, British novelist)
There is always a best way of doing everything.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, American poet, essayist)
He who has put a good finish to his undertaking is said to have placed a golden crown to the whole.
Eustachius
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.
Dianne Feinstein (1933-, American senator)
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.
Dianne Feinstein (1933-, American senator)
Good enough never is.
Debbi Field
You get the best out of others when you get the best out of yourself.
Harvey S. Firestone (1868-1938, American industrialist)
If something is exceptionally well done it has embedded in it's very existence the aim of lifting the common denominator rather than catering to it.
Edward Fischer
If I play my best, I can win anywhere in the world against anybody.
Ray Floyd (1942-, American golfer)
The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.
Henry Ford (1863-1947, American industrialist, founder of Ford Motor Company)
The roots of excellence are the freedom to dream the unthinkable and to finance the impossible.
Arthur C. Frantzreb
The real contest is always between what you've done and what you're capable of doing. You measure yourself against yourself and nobody else.
Geoffrey Gaberino
You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.
Jerry Garcia (1945-1995, American rock musician, "Grateful Dead")
All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002, American educator, social activist)
Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002, American educator, social activist)
The idea for which this nation stands will not survive if the highest goal free man can set themselves is an amiable mediocrity. Excellence implies striving for the highest standards in every phase of life.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002, American educator, social activist)
The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002, American educator, social activist)
Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach.
John W. Gardner (1912-2002, American educator, social activist)
The fact is, the difference between peak performers and everybody else are much smaller than everybody else thinks.
Charles A. Garfield (American peak performance expert, researcher, trainer)
Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.
Jose Ortega Y Gasset (1883-1955, Spanish essayist, philosopher)
We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter who makes no demands on himself.
Jose Ortega Y Gasset (1883-1955, Spanish essayist, philosopher)
The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips.
J. Paul Getty (1892-1976, American oil tycoon, arts patron)
The quality of expectations determines the quality of our action.
Andre Godin
Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist)
To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774, Anglo-Irish author, poet, playwright)
You're probably not a member of a major league baseball team. Your errors, unless they are truly spectacular, don't show up in the morning paper.
Jane Goodsell
Exceed expectations. We are not driven to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Bishop Gore
Do one thing at a time and do that one thing as if your life depended upon it.
Eugene Grace
There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.
Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658, Spanish philosopher, writer)
One shining quality lends a luster to another, or hides some glaring defect.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830, British essayist)
Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more.
Edward H. Harriman (1848-1909, American financier, railroad executive)
There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.
Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987, Lithuanian violinist)
It's enough for you to do it once for a few men to remember you. But if you do it year after year, then many people remember you and they tell it to their children, and their children and grandchildren remember and, if it concerns books, they can read them. And if it's good enough, it will last as long as there are human beings.
Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961, American writer)
Badness you can get easily, in quantity; the road is smooth, and it lies close by, But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steer is the way to it.
Hesiod (8th century BC Greek poet)
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970, American speaker, author, "Think And Grow Rich")
It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving, or the class of people served.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970, American speaker, author, "Think And Grow Rich")
You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970, American speaker, author, "Think And Grow Rich")
You have to create a track record of breaking your own mold, or at least other people's idea of that mold.
William Hurt (1950-, American actor)
The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the guys who try to do more than they're expected to do -- they always reach.
Lee Iacocca (1924-, American businessman, former CEO of Chrysler)
The noblest search is the search for excellence.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973, American President (36th))
The noblest search is the search for excellence.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973, American President (36th))
We do not do well except when we know where the best is and when we are assured that we have touched it and hold its power within us.
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824, French moralist)
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968, American Civil Rights leader, Nobel Prize winner, 1964)
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 (1819-1875, British author, clergyman)
From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars of whose origins we are ignorant, and of whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race.
Jean De La Bruyere (1645-1696, French classical writer)
We become so used to disguising ourselves to others, that we end up becoming disguised to ourselves.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680, French classical writer)
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, American President (16th))
If you'll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.
Vince Lombardi (1913-1970, American football coach)
When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.
Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913, British statesman, banker, naturalist)
When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.
Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913, British statesman, banker, naturalist)
There is a canyon of difference between doing your best to glorify God and doing whatever it takes to glorify yourself. The quest for excellence is a mark of maturity. The quest for power is childish.
Max L. Lucado (American author, "The Eye Of The Storm")
It isn't by size that you win or fail -- be the best of whatever you are.
Douglas Malloch
Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.
Og Mandino (1923-1996, American motivational author, speaker) Author's website: www.ogmandino.com
Deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting out more than is expected in all that you do. Make yourself so valuable in your work that eventually you will become indispensable.
Og Mandino (1923-1996, American motivational author, speaker) Author's website: www.ogmandino.com
One of the great undiscovered joys of life comes from doing everything one attempts to the best of one's ability. There is a special sense of satisfaction, a pride in surveying such a work, a work which is rounded, full, exact, complete in its parts, which the superficial person who leaves his or her work in a slovenly, slipshod, half-finished condition, can never know. It is this conscientious completeness which turns any work into art. The smallest task, well done, becomes a miracle of achievement.
Og Mandino (1923-1996, American motivational author, speaker) Author's website: www.ogmandino.com
The person who knows one thing and does it better than anyone else, even if it only be the art of raising lentils, receives the crown he merits. If he raises all his energy to that end, he is a benefactor of mankind and its rewarded as such.
Og Mandino (1923-1996, American motivational author, speaker) Author's website: www.ogmandino.com
I want to be all that I am capable of becoming.
Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923, New Zealand-born British author)
Doing common things uncommonly well.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
Great men are but common men more fully developed and ripened.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
It is just the little difference between the good and the best that makes the difference between the artist and the artisan. It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that makes the master's fame.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
It is those who have this imperative demand for the best in their natures, and who will accept nothing short of it, that hold the banners of progress, that set the standards, the ideals, for others.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
Just make up your mind at the very outset that your work is going to stand for quality... that you are going to stamp a superior quality upon everything that goes out of your hands, that whatever you do shall bear the hall-mark of excellence.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
Make it a life-rule to give your best to whatever passes through your hands. Stamp it with your manhood. Let superiority be your trademark...
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
People who have accomplished work worthwhile have had a very high sense of the way to do things. They have not been content with mediocrity. They have not confined themselves to the beaten tracks; they have never been satisfied to do things just as others so them, but always a little better. They always pushed things that came to their hands a little higher up, this little farther on, that counts in the quality of life's work. It is constant effort to be first-class in everything one attempts that conquers the heights of excellence.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
Superiority -- doing things a little better than anybody else can do them.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority….
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
There is only one thing for us to do, and that is to do our level best right where we are every day of our lives; to use our best judgment, and then to trust the rest to that Power which holds the forces of the universe in His hands.
Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)
To do the right thing, at the right time, in the right way; to do some things better than they were ever done before; to eliminate errors; to know both sides of the question; to be courteous; to be an example; to work for the love of work; to anticipate requirements; to develop resources; to recognize no impediments; to master circumstances; to act from reason rather than rule; to be satisfied with nothing short of perfection.
Marshall Field & Company (American company)
Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965, British novelist, playwright)
To enjoy enduring success we should travel a little in advance of the world.
John McDonald
Become all that you are capable of becoming!
Robert J. McKain
If we want to make something really superb on this planet, there is nothing whatever that can stop us.
Shepherd Mead
Do a little bit more than average and from that point on our progress multiplies itself out of all proportion to the effort put in.
Paul J. Meyer (American businessman, author, motivator)
The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.
James A. Michener (1907-1997, American writer)
There is one plain rule of life. Try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou art capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873, British philosopher, economist)
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