Mediocre Quotes - Page 18

• Philadelphians are every whit as mediocre as their neighbors, but they seldom encourage each other in mediocrity by giving it a more agreeable name.

  Agnes Repplier

  Names, Giving, Mediocrity

  Agnes Repplier (2009). “American Austen: The Forgotten Writing of Agnes Repplier”, Intercollegiate Studies Institute

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• Each time a mediocre singer performs, he is saying, in effect, "This is good enough for you." The audience, thrust into that familiar American mood of knowing something is wrong but not knowing what it is, unconsciously absorbs the insult and projects it back onto the mediocre performer in the form of inattention, rudeness and noise.

  Florence King

  Knowing, Mediocrity, Singers

  Florence King (1991). “Lump It Or Leave It”, p.58, Macmillan

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• But nothing is better than a truth which appears not to have the semblance of truth. There is always something incomprehensible about the great heroic deeds performed by humanity because they rise so far beyond the mediocre measure of mere mortals; but it is always only because of the incredible feats that human beings have accomplished that humanity recovers its faith in itself.

  Stefan Zweig

  Truth, Heroic Deeds, Humanity

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• Albert Einstein once reported, "Great spirits have always encountered voilent opposition from mediocre minds." If you want to achieve your own greatness, to climb your own mountains, you'll have to use yourself as your first and last consultant.

  Wayne Dyer

  Greatness, Mind, Mountain

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• The adjuration to be "normal" seems shockingly repellent to me; I see neither hope nor comfort in sinking to that low level. I think it is ignorance that makes people think of abnormality only with horror and allows them to remain undismayed at the proximity of "normal" to average and mediocre. For surely anyone who achieves anything is, essentially, abnormal.

  Karl A. Menninger

  Ignorance, Thinking, Average

  Karl A. Menninger (1953). “the Human Mind”

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• Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Beautiful, Understanding, Ugly

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• It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn't get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.

  Charlie Munger

  Character, Opportunity, Investing

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• It is our argument that a sufficiently low price can turn a security of mediocre quality into a sound investment opportunity - provided that the buyer is informed and experienced and he practices adequate diversification. For, if the price is low enough to create a substantial margin of safety, the security thereby meets our criterion of investment.

  Benjamin Graham

  Opportunity, Practice, Safety

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• The idea of excessive diversification is madness. Wide diversification, which necessarily includes investment in mediocre businesses, only guarantees ordinary results.

  Charlie Munger

  Ideas, Ordinary, Guarantees

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• A high church for the true mediocre.

  Norman Mailer

  Church, Syndicate

  1963 Of the FBI. The Presidential Papers,'Sixth Presidential Paper'.

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• Luck is a tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Accomplishment, Luck, Tag

  Robert A. Heinlein (2009). “The Puppet Masters”, p.264, Baen Publishing Enterprises

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• I would not encourage you to go through the sweat, blood, and tears of the recovery process only to reach some kind of mediocre state where you were just 'managing' the illness. It is possible to live without Ed.

  Jenni Schaefer

  Recovery, Blood, Sweat

  Jenni Schaefer (2009). “Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover from Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life”, p.9, McGraw Hill Professional

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• I always resent anybody interfering with anybody else trying to do his job. Everybody has his own job to do. If he's good, he'll do well, but if he's mediocre, he's not going to do as well as he should.

  Jack Kirby

  Jobs, Trying, Should

  Interview with Gary Groth, www.tcj.com. February 1990.

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• The problem with the bank managers was not that they were malevolent but that they were mediocre.

  Christopher Caldwell

  Problem, Managers

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• Punk rock and skateboarding took the 'school' out of living your life, and I related to learning as I went, doing a lot of different things that I liked, when I liked. Consequently, I'm mediocre at all of the above, but still stoked on being a lifetime student of music, skating, painting, writing, etc.

  Jeff Ament

  Writing, School, Rocks

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• Most people who are deemed 'mean' are usually perfectionist who make mediocre people unhappy, cause they put more pressure on them then they can handle.

  Lee Clow

  Mean, People, Unhappy

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• If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!

  Duke Ellington

  Band, Drummer, Ifs

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• Young people need plenty of difficulties to achieve something.... If you receive a little money for this, a little money for that, everything becomes mediocre, and collapses ignominiously.

  Salvador Dali

  People, Needs, Littles

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• Drop the idea of being Extraordinary!  It's keeping you mediocre. To be Ordinary is the most extraordinary thing in the world. The Ordinary person has light in his eyes; he has become extraordinary but he has no idea of it.

  Rajneesh

  Eye, Light, Ideas

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• That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists - nearly $30 million - but next to nothing for the founders. The companies I started after that varied between failures and mediocre successes. But at no point did I ever consider getting a 'real job.' That felt like a black and white world, and I wanted Technicolor.

  Michael Arrington

  Jobs, Real, Black And White

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• Life is too short to do mediocre work and it is definitely too short to build shitty things.

  Stewart Butterfield

  Life Is Too Short, Life Is, Too Short

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• I would rather spend my entire life doing nothing than have my name attached to something mediocre.

  Lena Dunham

  Names, Doing Nothing

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• Horace's best ode would not please a young woman as much as the mediocre verses of the young man she is in love with.

  Michael Moore

  Men, Odes, Young

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• It can be said unequivocally that good teaching is far more complex, difficult, and demanding than mediocre research, which may explain why professors try so hard to avoid it.

  Page Smith

  Teaching, Trying, Research

  Page Smith (1990). “Killing the Spirit: Higher Education in America”, Viking Adult

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• Making one brilliant decision and a whole bunch of mediocre ones isn't as good as making a whole bunch of generally smart decisions throughout the whole process.

  John Carmack

  Smart, Decision, Brilliant

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