Excellence Quotes - Page 9

• Excellent things are rare.

  Plato

  Excellent

  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”

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• I no more thought of style or literary excellence than the mother who rushes into the street and cries for help to save her children from a burning house, thinks of the teachings of the rhetorician or the elocutionist.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Mother, Children, Teaching

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (2016). “Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe: Compiled From Her Letters and Journals by Her Son Charles Edward Stowe”, p.120, Library of Alexandria

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• He who excels in his art so as to carry it to the utmost height of perfection of which it is capable may be said in some measure to go beyond it: his transcendent productions admit of no appellations.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Art, Perfection, May

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• No amount of virtuosic skill and choice of subject matter can be a substitute for depth and poetry.

  Scott Kahn

  Skills, Choices, Depth

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• I would venture to affirm that a man cannot attain excellence if he satisfy the ignorant and not those of his own craft, and if he be not 'singular' or 'distant,' or whatever you like to call him.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Men, Ignorant, Crafts

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• 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

  Nice, Accomplishment, Mind

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• While I recommend studying the art from artists, Nature is and must be the fountain which alone is inexhaustible, and from which all excellences must originally flow.

  Joshua Reynolds

  Art, Flow, Study

  sir Joshua Reynolds (1853). “Discourses on the Fine Arts Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy”, p.23

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• Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.

  Horace

  Sometimes, Excellent

  Ars Poetica l. 359

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• Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

  Hermann Hesse

  Self, Doe, Literature

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• Ten thousand times I've done my best and all's to do again.

  A. E. Housman

  Done, Thousand, Ten

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.109, Delphi Classics

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• I've come to realize that companionship and mild competition can help build quality and lay the ground for excellence.

  Robert Genn

  Competition, Quality, Helping

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• What is excellent,
  As God lives, is permanent;
  Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain,
  Heart's love will meet thee again.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Heart, Dust, Life Is

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2011). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.560, Penguin

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• Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.

  Walter Bagehot

  Government, Political, Politics

  Walter Bagehot, Norman St. John-Stevas (1959). “Walter Bagehot: A Study of His Life and Thought, Together with a Selection from His Political Writings”, London : Eyre & Spottiswoode

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• It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.

  Georges Bernanos

  Pride, Order, Rise Above

  Georges Bernanos, Rémy Rougeau (2002). “The Diary of a Country Priest”, p.224, Da Capo Press

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• When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Book, Reading, Inspire

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

  Thomas Carlyle

  Achievement, Intellectual, Capable

  "Jean Paul Friedrich Richter" (1827)

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

  Andrew Carnegie

  Inspirational, Life, Motivation

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• I start where the last man left off.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Inspirational, Positive, Men

  "Makers of the Modern World : The Lives of Ninety-two Writers, Artists, Scientists, Statesmen, Inventors, Philosophers, Composers, and Other Creators who Formed the Pattern of Our Century". Book by Louis Untermeyer, 1955.

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• We must overcome the notion that we must be regular... it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.

  Uta Hagen

  Life, Self Esteem, Women

  Uta Hagen (2009). “Respect for Acting”, p.29, John Wiley & Sons

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

  William Hazlitt

  Shining, Quality, Defects

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1486, Delphi Classics

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• 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.

  Lee Iacocca

  Top Management, People, Guy

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• I believe the destiny of your generation - and your nation - is a rendezvous with excellence.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Believe, Patriotic, Destiny

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1965). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-1964”, p.765, Best Books on

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

  John Keats

  Art, Literature, Intensity

  Letter to George and Thomas Keats, 21 December 1817, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) 'The Letters of John Keats' (1958) vol. 1, p. 192

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• History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

  John F. Kennedy

  Patriotic, Past, Rushing

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• He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lives a great street-sweeper who did his job well'

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Jobs, Greatness, Heaven

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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