Motivational Quotes

Perfection

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

- Maugham, W. Somerset

Best Quotes about Perfection

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals.

Orwell, George

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

Epictetus

Perfection is perfectly simple; fouling things up requires true skill.

Horton, Doug

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

Will, George F.

Assert your right to make a few mistakes. If people can't accept your imperfections, that's their fault.

Dr. David M. Burns

The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.

Randall, Stanely J.

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.

Augustine, St.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

Anna Quindlen

Perfection is the child of time.

Hall, Joseph

10.

I have always suspected that correctness is the last refuge of those who have nothing to say.

Wasiman, Friedrich

11.

You can spend a lifetime, and, if you're honest with yourself, never once was your work perfect.

Heston, Charlton

12.

To demand perfection is a sure way to be disappointed in everybody, for you will be bound to think ill of others.

Monica Fairview

13.

The nearest to perfection that most people come is when filling out an employment application.

14.

All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.

Spinoza, Baruch (Benedict de)

15.

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection --even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano --is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

Smith, Logan Pearsall

16.

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

Hazlitt, William

17.

I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active --not more happy --nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

Poe, Edgar Allan

18.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Addison, Joseph

19.

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solitude is the enemy of well-being.

Updike, John

20.

You have to let people see what you wrote. It will never be perfect, but perfect is overrated. Perfect is boring.

Tina Fey

21.

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business.

Michael J. Fox

22.

If you'd like to be good at something, the first thing to out the window is the notion of perfection.

Scott Berkun

23.

Perfection is what American women expect to find in their husbands... but English women only hope to find in their butlers.

Maugham, W. Somerset

24.

Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it, said the Philosopher.

Stephens, James

25.

Perfection has one grave defect. It is apt to be dull.

Maugham, W. Somerset

26.

When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.

Fisher, Geoffrey F.

27.

Everything is perfect in the universe -- even your desire to improve it.

Dyer, Wayne

28.

It is no crime not to be perfect

29.

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

Maugham, W. Somerset

30.

No one becomes perfect, but some become great.

31.

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.

Chesterfield, Lord

32.

Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Arnauld, Angelique

33.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

Carlyle, Thomas

34.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

35.

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.

Saint Francis de Sales

36.

No barber shaves so close but another finds his work.

Proverb, English

37.

Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.

Chateaubriand, Vicomte De

38.

Perfectionism is simply putting a limit on your future. When you have an idea of perfect in your mind, you open the door to constantly comparing what you have now with what you want. That type of self criticism is significantly deterring.

John Eliot, Ph.D.

39.

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.

Webb, Beatrice Potter

40.

[M]aybe the most any of us can expect of ourselves isn't perfection but progress.

Michelle Burford

41.

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.

Delacroix, Eugene

42.

Be ye therefore perfect, eve as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

Bible

43.

Have no fear of perfection-you'll never reach it.

Dali, Salvador

44.

Perfection is a road, not a destination. Every time I live, I get an education.

Burk Hudson

45.

If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do.

Shaw, George Bernard

46.

Every time, all the time, I'm a perfectionist. I feel I should never lose.

Evert, Chris

47.

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

48.

The more perfect a thing is, the more susceptible to good and bad treatment it is.

Dante Alighieri

49.

The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work, and if it take the second must refuse a heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.

Yeats, William Butler

50.

Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von