Quotes About Excellence

There is a certain noble pride, through which merits shine brighter than through modesty.

Mine is better than ours.

Quality, not quantity, is my measure.

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.

Good is not good, where better is expected.

Better is the enemy of the good.

If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.

To aim at the best and to remain essentially ourselves is one and the same thing.

The same man cannot be skilled in everything; each has his special excellence.

A man like Verdi must write like Verdi.

Whatever course you have chosen for yourself, it will not be a chore but an adventure if you bring to it a sense of the glory of striving ... if your sights are set far above the merely secure and mediocre.

Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?

He profits most who serves best.

Shakespeare has had neither equal nor second.

To be simple is to be great.

What I do, I do very well, and what I don't do well, I don't do at all.

Losers have tons of variety. Champions take pride in just learning to hit the same old boring winners.

Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.

Becoming number one is easier than remaining number one.

Citius, altius, fortius. (Swifter, higher, stronger.)

I studied the lives of great men and famous women; and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.

There is a passion for perfection which you rarely see fully developed; but you may note this fact, that in successful lives it is never wholly lacking.

Excellence in any pursuit is the late, ripe fruit of toil.

It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What's tough is being good every day.