Quotes About Excellence

The legitimate aim of criticism is to direct attention to the excellent. The bad will dig its own grave.

A perfect work destroys the critic's art.

Great designs are not accomplished without enthusiasm of some sort. It is the inspiration of everything great.

McEnroe, Connors, Becker, Evert, Navratilova, Lendl, Borg

Perfection is not given to any man. But an aspiration to perfection—to the highest possible standards in every aspect of life—is possible.

Whenever Jeff Bezos roamed a fulfillment center or his own Seattle headquarters, he looked for defects—flaws in the company's systems or even its corporate culture.

obsessão pelo cliente; simplicidade; propensão à ação; propriedade; e padrões elevados de talento.

Bezos felt that hiring only the best and brightest was key to Amazon's success.

Larry ended up being salutatorian of his class at Livingston High.

you'd heard he was a great teacher and that

Voltaire to me: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The key was preparation. That was what separated the good from the great. The greats covered their tracks. The greats prepared for every eventuality.

Possibly the only dismaying aspect of excellence is that it makes living in a world of mediocrity an ongoing prospect of living hell.

There is only one real evil in the world: mediocrity.

Awesome is the word one uses for Eleanor Roosevelt, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and pitching a no-hit no-run ballgame. Not available for the crappy cheese quesadilla you had this afternoon, nor for anybody who Dances with the Stars. With or without a wooden leg.)

The creator of Sir John Falstaff, of Hamlet, and of Rosalind also makes me wish I could be more myself. But that, as I argue throughout this book, is why we should read, and why we should read only the best of what has been written.

One breaks into the canon only by aesthetic strength.

The elliptical mode in her poetry recalls late Shakespeare but is more extreme. A daemonic drive to negate precursors while maintaining their standards of excellence distinguishes her from some recent poetical ideologues of the feminist persuasion, whether in verse or prose. They claim Dickinson as ancestor, yet they do her wrong, she being so majestical, to offer her the show of violence.

No job is ever "beneath" you. In whatever you do, do it to the best of your abilities.

Now, this not only means seeing the troops are fed, clothed and housed properly (the easy part), but more importantly, training them to perfection, anticipating their problems and needs while actively anticipating and eliminating problems before they occur. Among other attributes

WITHOUT EQUAL. Think about it. These words are even more powerful than the "Will to Win" or "#1"…ponder the feeling one gets from these words. I suggest you, embrace these words forever within your institution. And as you enlarge your circles around the world, make these two words your everyday life breath.

Look for and find the really good "horses" in your organization and run them hard. Push them and challenge them with greater levels of responsibility.

Mediocrity's like a spot on a shirt—it never comes off.

Better to be a first-class matchbox than a second-class match.