Motivational Quotes

Excellence

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.

- Michener, James A.

Best Quotes about Excellence

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

Peterson, Wilferd A.

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

Wooden, John

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

Carlyle, Thomas

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.

Brown Jr., H. Jackson

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Let each day be your masterpiece.

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.

Watson, Thomas J.

You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards.

Tracy, Brian

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

10.

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.

Marden, Orison Swett

11.

Michener, James A.

12.

The quality of expectations determines the quality of our action.

Godin, Andre

13.

I want to be all that I am capable of becoming.

Mansfield, Katherine

14.

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.

Joubert, Joseph

15.

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

16.

Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.

Rorty, Richard

17.

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.

Lucado, Max L.

18.

You always have to give 100 percent, because if you don't, someone, someplace, will give 100 percent and will beat you when you meet.

Macauley, Ed

19.

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

20.

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.

Mandino, Og

21.

If you'll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.

Lombardi, Vince

22.

Whatever you do, don't do it halfway.

Beamon, Bob

23.

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

24.

There is none who cannot teach somebody something, and there is none so excellent but he is excelled.

Gracian, Baltasar

25.

Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Gardner, John W.

26.

A masterpiece is something said once and for all, stated, finished, so that it's there complete in the mind, if only at the back.

Woolf, Virginia

27.

The noblest search is the search for excellence.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

28.

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.

Hill, Napoleon

29.

Excellent firms don't believe in excellence -- only in constant improvement and constant change.

Peters, Thomas J.

30.

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.

31.

I use nothing but the best ingredients. My cookies are always baked fresh. I price cookies so that you cannot make them at home for any less. And I still give cookies away.

Fields, Debbie

32.

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

Popplestone, Charles E.

33.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

Lincoln, Abraham

34.

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.

35.

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.

Mandino, Og

36.

Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more.

Vickery, A. Lou

37.

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

Riley, Pat

38.

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

39.

The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.

John F. Kennedy

40.

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

Carnegie, Andrew

41.

Anybody who accepts mediocrity -- in school, on the job, in life -- is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises.

Knight, Charles

42.

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

43.

One shining quality lends a luster to another, or hides some glaring defect.

Hazlitt, William

44.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Maugham, W. Somerset

45.

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

Malloch, Douglas

46.

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

47.

If we want to make something really superb on this planet, there is nothing whatever that can stop us.

Mead, Shepherd

48.

The success combination in business is: Do what you do better... and: Do more of what you do...

Schwartz, David J.

49.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

50.

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