Quotes About Excellence

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

One's own belief in human excellence is one of the ultimate signs of the skewness that man himself has invented, his role in everything. Sublimely, however, we are aware of our own coming doom through a quick glance at the world around us.

Viel Leisten - wenig hervortreten - mehr sein als scheinen." Alfred Graf von Schlieffen, Generalfeldmarschall, (* 28. Februar 1833 in Berlin; † 4. Januar 1913 ebenda)

What all good teachers have in common, however, is that they set high standards for their students and do not settle for anything less.

If you have self-respect, you will take satisfaction in being well groomed and will not allow yourself to perform shabbily. You will continue to work toward high standards and goals to serve others, to continue and to practice self-discipline. You will not compromise your standards or beliefs.

Worth remembering that: forget what you want to do, find something you do better than anyone else, even if it's only turd-throwing, and become undisputed champion: better a champion shit-shoveller than a forty-second-rate turnip-carver . . . Where

Practice makes perfect.....But nobody's perfect......so why practice?

It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get it.

Cooking is like making love, you do it well, or you do not do it at all.

Those who are blessed with the most talent don't necessarily outperform everyone else. It's the people with follow-through who excel.

There are always men who take their own measure against greatness, and hate it not for what it is, but for what they are. They can envy even the dead. So much Alexander saw. He did not understand, since it was not in him, the power such men have to rouse in others the sleeping envy they once had a decent shame of; to turn respect for excellence into hate. Nor did Kallisthenes understand it in himself. Vanity begets it, vanity covers it up.

He had to do them, to show he was the best.

To hate excellence is to hate the gods.

Agatha Swanburne - "Doing your best is no cause for regret.

Quality begins when everybody in the organization commits to never sending rejects or imperfect information to the next process.

The problem nowadays is that, by and large, we do a pretty bad job of picking role models. We glorify actors, singers, athletes, and generic "celebrities," only to be disappointed when—predictably—it turns out that their excellence at reciting, singing, playing basketball, or racking up Facebook likes and Twitter followers has pretty much nothing to do with their moral fiber.

It is also about keeping in mind what is and what is not under our control, focusing our efforts on the former and not wasting them on the latter. It is about practicing virtue and excellence and navigating the world to the best of our abilities, while being mindful of the moral dimension of all our actions.

A step towards complacency is a step towards mediocrity; a step towards diligence is a step towards brilliance.

A step towards excellence is a mile towards success.

Act sensibly. Act sincerely. Act selflessly. Act splendidly.

As eagles fly with eagles, the great walk with the great.

Do what you master; master what you do.

Excellence in obscurity is better than mediocrity in the spotlight.

Excellence is the best ink with which to make your mark in the world.