Motivational Quotes

Excellence

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

Best Quotes about Excellence

To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service.

Goldsmith, Oliver

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

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

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.

The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval.

Waitley, Denis

Determine to become one of the best. Sufficient money will almost automatically follow if you get to be one of the best in your chosen field, whatever it is.

Mitchell, Don G.

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

Thomas, Lowell

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

Riley, Pat

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

10.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Maugham, W. Somerset

11.

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

Gracian, Baltasar

12.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

13.

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

14.

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.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

To enjoy enduring success we should travel a little in advance of the world.

Mcdonald, John

18.

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

Newton, Howard W.

19.

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

20.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

21.

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

22.

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

Sands, Bill

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Hazlitt, William

26.

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

Wilde, Oscar

27.

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

28.

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

29.

The road to excellence is always under construction

30.

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

31.

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

Carnegie, Andrew

32.

Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Gardner, John W.

33.

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

Feinstein, Dianne

34.

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

35.

The noblest search is the search for excellence.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Wooden, John

39.

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

Peterson, Wilferd A.

40.

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

41.

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

Heifetz, Jascha

42.

Mandino, Og

43.

Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.

Rorty, Richard

44.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

45.

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.

46.

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

Mandino, Og

47.

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

Garfield, Charles A.

48.

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

49.

True greatness consists in being great in little things.

Simmons, Charles

50.

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