Motivational Quotes

Excellence

Superiority -- doing things a little better than anybody else can do them.

- Marden, Orison Swett

Best Quotes about Excellence

It isn't what you do, but how you do it.

Wooden, John

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.

Meyer, Paul J.

Our goal, simply stated, is to be the best.

Robinson, James H.

If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just.

Roddick, Anita

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

Carnegie, Andrew

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.

Mill, John Stuart

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.

Gaberino, Geoffrey

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.

Darwin, Francis

The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self improvement, about being better than you were the day before.

Young, Steve

10.

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

11.

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.

Mandino, Og

12.

Superiority -- doing things a little better than anybody else can do them.

Marden, Orison Swett

13.

Good enough never is.

Field, Debbi

14.

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.

Scott, Charles Prestwich

15.

The uncommon man is merely the common man thinking and dreaming of success in larger terms and in more fruitful areas.

Powers, Melvin

16.

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

Pearl Buck

17.

Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.

Rorty, Richard

18.

I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest. I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have.

Truman, Harry S

19.

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.

Marden, Orison Swett

20.

All you owe the public is a good performance.

Bogart, Humphrey

21.

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.

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

22.

People who produce good results feel good about themselves.

Blanchard, Ken

23.

We must do the best we can with what we have.

Sill, Edward Rowland

24.

You must be resolutely determined that whatever you do shall always be the best of which you are capable.

Popplestone, Charles E.

25.

With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.

Aristotle

26.

People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you. The lives of most men are patchwork quilts. Or at best one matching outfit with a closet and laundry bag full of incongruous accumulations. A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.

Owens, Jesse

27.

Great men are but common men more fully developed and ripened.

Marden, Orison Swett

28.

The fact is, the difference between peak performers and everybody else are much smaller than everybody else thinks.

Garfield, Charles A.

29.

Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.

Thomas, Lowell

30.

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.

Briggs, Dean

31.

It isn't by size that you win or fail -- be the best of whatever you are.

Malloch, Douglas

32.

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

33.

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.

Ford, Henry

34.

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.

Brown, Les

35.

If you aren't playing well, the game isn't as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid.

Watson, Thomas J.

36.

Great men are little men expanded; great lives are ordinary lives intensified.

Peterson, Wilferd A.

37.

Become all that you are capable of becoming!

Mckain, Robert J.

38.

You have to create a track record of breaking your own mold, or at least other people's idea of that mold.

Hurt, William

39.

Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don't live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.

Ogilvy, David

40.

Doing common things uncommonly well.

Marden, Orison Swett

41.

The excellency of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeable evaporate.

Keats, John

42.

Winners have the ability to step back from the canvas of their lives like an artist gaining perspective. They make their lives a work of art -- an individual masterpiece.

Waitley, Denis

43.

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.

Goodsell, Jane

44.

Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach.

Gardner, John W.

45.

Do more than you're supposed to do and you can have or be or do anything you want.

Sands, Bill

46.

Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.

Riley, Pat

47.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can reach. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries and predecessors; try to be better than yourself.

48.

There is no such thing as natural touch. Touch is something you create by hitting millions of golf balls.

Trevino, Lee

49.

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.

Kingsley, Charles

50.

True greatness consists in being great in little things.

Simmons, Charles