Motivational Quotes

Excellence

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

- Maugham, W. Somerset

Best Quotes about Excellence

It is those who have this imperative demand for the best in their natures, and who will accept nothing short of it, that holds the banners of progress, that set the standards, the ideals, for others.

Marden, Orison Swett

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

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

Mansfield, Katherine

Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.

Rorty, Richard

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

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

Newton, Howard W.

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

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

Floyd, Ray

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

Young, Steve

10.

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

Powers, Melvin

11.

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

12.

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

13.

I can do small things in a great way.

Clarke, James Freeman

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.

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.

16.

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.

17.

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

Wooden, John

18.

It's enough for you to do it once for a few men to remember you. But if you do it year after year, then many people remember you and they tell it to their children, and their children and grandchildren remember and, if it concerns books, they can read them. And if it's good enough, it will last as long as there are human beings.

Hemingway, Ernest

19.

The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.

Ford, Henry

20.

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

21.

Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

22.

Good enough never is.

Field, Debbi

23.

Doing common things uncommonly well.

Marden, Orison Swett

24.

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

25.

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.

Shana Alexander

26.

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

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

28.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

29.

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

30.

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

31.

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority...

Marden, Orison Swett

32.

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

O'Connor, Flannery

33.

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

34.

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

Thomas, Lowell

35.

The road to excellence is always under construction

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Da Vinci, Leonardo

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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.

42.

When you say you'll meet someone at 11:00 AM, be there at 10:45. When you promise a check on the 30th, send it on the 28th. Whatever you agree to do, do it a bit more. Start with your employees, then extend it to everyone you deal with. News will soon get around that you are a person of your word.

Scott, Charles Prestwich

43.

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

44.

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

Popplestone, Charles E.

45.

There is no such thing as natural touch. Touch is something you create by hitting millions of golf balls.

Trevino, Lee

46.

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

Hazlitt, William

47.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Robinson, James H.