Motivational Quotes

Perfection

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

- Hazlitt, William

Best Quotes about Perfection

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

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

Arnauld, Angelique

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

No one becomes perfect, but some become great.

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

Heston, Charlton

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

Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.

Channing, William Ellery

Perfection is the child of time.

Hall, Joseph

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

Maugham, W. Somerset

10.

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

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

11.

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

Anna Quindlen

12.

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

Stephens, James

13.

Perfection is our goal, excellence will be tolerated.

Yahl, J.

14.

The idea of perfect closes your mind to new standards.. When you drive hard toward one ideal, you miss opportunities and paths, not to mention hurting your confidence. Believe in your potential and then go out and explore it; donÆt limit it.

John Eliot, Ph.D.

15.

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

16.

I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow isàthe higher achievement.

Lois McMaster Bujold

17.

If a man should happen to reach perfection in this world, he would have to die immediately to enjoy himself.

Billings, Josh

18.

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

19.

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

Horton, Doug

20.

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

Michelle Burford

21.

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

Dyer, Wayne

22.

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

Burk Hudson

23.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

24.

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

Updike, John

25.

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

26.

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

Bible

27.

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.

Webb, Beatrice Potter

28.

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

29.

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

Augustine, St.

30.

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

Wasiman, Friedrich

31.

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

Evert, Chris

32.

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

33.

I don't like these cold, precise, perfect people who, in order not to speak wrong, never speak at all, and in order not to do wrong, never do anything.

Beecher, Henry Ward

34.

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

Monica Fairview

35.

We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.

Corneille, Pierre

36.

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.

37.

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

Salvador Dali

38.

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

Delacroix, Eugene

39.

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

Dr. David M. Burns

40.

All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.

Spinoza, Baruch (Benedict de)

41.

The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization.

Horney, Karen

42.

No barber shaves so close but another finds his work.

Proverb, English

43.

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

Will, George F.

44.

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

Michael J. Fox

45.

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

Scott Berkun

46.

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

47.

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

48.

Perfecting is our destiny, but perfection never our lot.

Weber, C. J.

49.

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

Maugham, W. Somerset

50.

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery