Motivational Quotes

Excellence

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

- Peterson, Wilferd A.

Best Quotes about Excellence

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

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

Washington, Booker T.

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

To do great things is difficult, but to command great things is more difficult.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

The noblest search is the search for excellence.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

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...

Marden, Orison Swett

Let each day be your masterpiece.

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

Robinson, James H.

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.

Garcia, Jerry

10.

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.

Iacocca, Lee

11.

Resolve to make each day the very best and don't let anyone get in your way. If they do, step on them.

Benson, Ivan

12.

There's a way to do better... find it.

Edison, Thomas A.

13.

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

14.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

Hill, Napoleon

15.

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.

16.

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.

Feinstein, Dianne

17.

Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way.

Marden, Orison Swett

18.

Strive for excellence, not perfection.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

19.

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

20.

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

21.

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.

Sir Winston Churchill

22.

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.

Hill, Napoleon

23.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

27.

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

Aristotle

28.

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

29.

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.

30.

There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.

Heifetz, Jascha

31.

Whatever you do, don't do it halfway.

Beamon, Bob

32.

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

Young, Steve

33.

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

Powers, Melvin

34.

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

35.

The quality of expectations determines the quality of our action.

Godin, Andre

36.

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

37.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

38.

True greatness consists in being great in little things.

Simmons, Charles

39.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

40.

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

Riley, Pat

41.

If I play my best, I can win anywhere in the world against anybody.

Floyd, Ray

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

45.

Good enough never is.

Field, Debbi

46.

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

Aristotle

47.

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

Peterson, Wilferd A.

48.

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.

Marden, Orison Swett

49.

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.

Gardner, John W.

50.

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

Roddick, Anita