Mediocrity Quotes - Page 19

• It is a sad mission to cut through and destroy with the scissors of analysis the delicate and iridescent veils with which our proud mediocrity clothes itself.

  Cesare Lombroso

  Cutting, Clothes, Analysis

  Cesare Lombroso (2017). “The Man of Genius”, p.11, Litres

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• The appearance of a single great genius is more than equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities

  Cesare Lombroso

  Genius, Birth, Appearance

  Cesare Lombroso (2017). “The Man of Genius”, p.116, Litres

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• Only mediocrity escapes criticism.

  John Steinbeck

  Life, Criticism

  John Steinbeck (2001). “A Life in Letters”, p.1159, Penguin UK

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• As Aristotle wrote a long, long time ago, and I'm paraphrasing here, the goal is to avoid mediocrity by being prepared to try something and either failing miserably or triumphing grandly. Mediocrity is not about failing, and it's the opposite of doing. Mediocrity, in other words, is about not trying. The reason is achingly simple, and I know you've heard it a thousand times before: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

  Georges St-Pierre

  Simple, Opposites, Long

  Georges St-Pierre (2013). “The Way of the Fight”, p.7, Harper Collins

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• Desire is what takes the hot water of mediocrity and turns it into the steam of outstanding success.

  Zig Ziglar

  Success, Business, Water

  FaceBook post by Zig Ziglar from Sep 20, 2013

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• Greatness is always envied - it is only mediocrity that can boast of a host of friends.

  Marie Corelli

  Greatness, Envy, Host

  Marie Corelli (1972). “Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct”, p.332, Health Research Books

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• When Americans decry our politicians, we must remember that ultimately, politicians reflect us. When we demand more than mediocrity - and the passing comforts it bestows - we will certainly attain it. One hopes and prays it doesn't take an historic crisis for us to demand and reward excellence in public service.

  James M Strock

  Excellence, Comfort, Praying

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• Actors are loved because they are unoriginal. Actors stick to their script. The unoriginal man is loved by the mediocrity because this kind of artistic expression is something to which the merest five-eighth can climb.

  Patrick Kavanagh

  Men, Expression, Sticks

  Patrick Kavanagh (1973). “Collected Pruse”

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• As we celebrate mediocrity, all the boys upstairs want to see. How much you'll pay for what you used to get for free.

  Tom Petty

  Art, Boys, Media

  Song: The Last DJ, Album: The Last DJ

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• Over and over again mediocrity is promoted because real worth isn't to be found.

  Kathleen Norris

  Real, Found

  Kathleen Thompson Norris (1931). “Hands Full of Living: Talks with American Women”

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• Probability is a kind of penance, which God made, suitable, I presume to that state of mediocrity and probationership he has been pleased to place us in here; wherein, to check our over-confidence and presumption, we might, by every day's experience, be made sensible of our short-sightedness, and liableness to error.

  John Locke

  Kindness, Errors, Might

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• Think you are weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second class - think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity.

  David J. Schwartz

  Thinking, Class, Way

  David J. Schwartz (2014). “The Magic of Thinking Big”, p.118, Penguin

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• It is better to excel in any single art than to arrive only at mediocrity in several, so moderate skill in several is to be preferred where one cannot attain to perfection in any.

  Pliny the Younger

  Art, Skills, Perfection

  Pliny (the Younger) (1807). “The Letters of Pliny the Consul: With Occasional Remarks”, p.195

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• There's a perception that British pies suffer from mediocrity, and historically they have. We're trying to re-educate people about what pie is.

  James Robertson

  Pie, People, Perception

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• When I imagine God creating each one of us and planting a purpose deep in our hearts, I never imagine that purpose being mediocrity.

  Katie Davis

  Heart, Creating, Purpose

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• We are the mediocre, we are the half givers, we are the half lovers, we are the savourless salt. Break the hard crust of complacency. Quicken in us the sharp grace of desire.

  Caryll Houselander

  Grace, Desire, Complacency

  Caryll Houselander (1945). “The Flowering Tree”

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• Parodies are hard to do well, as is shown by the mediocrity of so many recent attempts. No matter how ripe a genre is for satirizing, unless you know how to do it, there are no guarantees.

  James Berardinelli

  Genre Is, Guarantees, Matter

  "Robin Hood: Men in Tights (United States, 1993)". Movie review, www.reelviews.net.

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• Cognitive consonance is what writing in the Age of the idiot is all about. The key to success in the scribbling profession is to strike the right balance of mediocrity in writing and thinking, which invariably entails echoing one of two party lines, poorly.

  Ilana Mercer

  Party, Writing, Thinking

  "National Review Eunuchs". www.wnd.com. April 12, 2012.

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• Democracy is always, by nature and constitution, the triumph of mediocrity.

  Indro Montanelli

  Democracy, Triumph, Constitution

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• We often reward mediocrity because it is comforting. If they can do it, anyone can do it.

  Jessica Zafra

  Comforting, Rewards, Can Do

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• The height of mediocrity is still low.

  Vanna Bonta

  Height, Lows, Stills

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• Commercialism is doing well that which should not be done at all.

  Gore Vidal

  Business, Useless Stuff, Time Management

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• In the age of mediocrity and clones, John Stowell's uniqueness and originality are a breath of fresh air. I love playing with him.

  Paul Horn

  Air, Age, Originality

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• The industrial age brought compliance and compliance brought fear and fear brought us mediocrity.

  Seth Godin

  Age, Compliance

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• Mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it.

  Graham Cooke

  Passion, Invisible, Shows

  FaceBook post by Graham Cooke from Mar 06, 2011

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