Motivational Quotes

Excellence

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

Best Quotes about Excellence

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.

Publilius Syrus

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

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

Carlyle, Thomas

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

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

Powers, Melvin

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.

Bruyere, Jean De La

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

Marden, Orison Swett

10.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.

Da Vinci, Leonardo

11.

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

Popplestone, Charles E.

12.

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

13.

It is only in your mind that you have to excel, at anything or everything. Of course, it would be very nice to excel at most things. Indeed, we recommend that you try and do your best. But realistically, you are entitled to do the bare minimum to get by. All your accomplishments are just a bonus, something to enjoy, not requirements. You don't have to do anything to prove that you are worthy of existing.

Albert Ellis, Michael Abrams, Lidia Dengelegi

14.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

15.

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

16.

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

Heifetz, Jascha

17.

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

18.

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

19.

True greatness consists in being great in little things.

Simmons, Charles

20.

Whatever you do, don't do it halfway.

Beamon, Bob

21.

The quality of expectations determines the quality of our action.

Godin, Andre

22.

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.

23.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Maugham, W. Somerset

24.

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.

Shana Alexander

25.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

Wilde, Oscar

26.

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

Keats, John

27.

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

28.

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

Edison, Thomas A.

29.

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

Feinstein, Dianne

30.

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

31.

The road to excellence is always under construction

32.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

33.

People forget how fast you did a job, but they remember how well you did it.

Newton, Howard W.

34.

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

35.

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

Floyd, Ray

36.

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

Mansfield, Katherine

37.

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.

Fischer, Edward

38.

Become all that you are capable of becoming!

Mckain, Robert J.

39.

Excellence is best described as doing the right things right -- selecting the most important things to be done and then accomplishing them 100% correctly.

40.

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

41.

Don't waste your time striving for perfection, instead, strive for excellence -- doing your best.

Olivier, Sir Lawrence

42.

Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Gardner, John W.

43.

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

Mandino, Og

44.

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

45.

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

Gracian, Baltasar

46.

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

Sir Winston Churchill

47.

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.

48.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

49.

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

50.

I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best.

O'Connor, Flannery