Quotes About Mediocrity

Those who think that the wisest way to groom a child for spiritual maturity is to isolate him from the evil, corrupted world system or airbrush his childhood environment so much that it exposes only him to the good and never teaches him how to process the bad (or the counterfeit) will set a child up for a life of mediocrity at best and spiritual annihilation at worst.

How can you admire a human who consciously embraces the bland, the mediocre, and the safe rather than risk the suffering that disappointment can bring?

Poor little babies are so afraid of pain that they spurn the myriad sweet wonders of life so that they might protect themselves from hurt. How can you respect that sort of weakness, how can you admire a human who consciously embraces the bland, the mediocre, and the safe rather than risk the suffering that disappointments can bring?

The ones who're so upset about everybody not being the same, about competition, about standards of quality, about art objects having 'auras' around them, they're usually people with average abilities and average minds. And below average senses of humor.

Ah, Gwendolyn, while it may be true that "everyday existence' is the tirl of dull, repetitive activities that you infer, it's just one layer of a many-layered cake; and if it seems an exercise in pointless mediocrity, maybe that's only because most who live it are too narrowly focused to perceive its underlying kaleidoscopic density.

Mediocrity is the standard rather than the exception among practicing artists (Sturgeon's rule: 90 percent of everything is shit)

Politically speaking, ours is an age of the pygmies.

Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens.

Against every great and noble endeavor stand a thousand mediocre minds.

A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius, which is apt to be perturbable and to wear itself out before fruition.

If a Christian is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired.

If you're an artist and you're on Twitter, you are doomed to mediocrity.

The biggest human temptation is... to settle for too little.

Not doing more than the average is what keeps the average down.

Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity

When we are placed in a set of circumstances where we have to take initiative and be creative, some of us find it hard to transition. Those people have been trained not to think but to obey orders. They are slaves to the training, unconsciously pledging allegiance to the average. Mentally they recite from the manual of mediocrity.

Routines without ongoing assessment lead to stagnation and mediocrity.

William Bernstein, Ph.D., M.D., author of The Four Pillars of Investing, frequent guest columnist for Morningstar and often quoted in The Wall Street Journal: "An index fund dooms you to mediocrity? Absolutely not: It virtually guarantees you superior performance.

An index fund dooms you to mediocrity? Absolutely not: It virtually guarantees you superior performance.

In this regard, I like to quote a favorite aphorism from Oxford art historian Edgar Wind: "Mediocrity which claims to be intense has a peculiarly repulsive effect.

Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.

We know of no spectacle more ridiculous—or more contemptible—than that of the religious reactionaries who dare to re-write the history of our republic. Or who try to do so. Is it possible that, in their vanity and stupidity, they suppose that they can erase the name of Thomas Jefferson and replace it with the name of some faith-based mediocrity whose name is already obscure? If so, we cheerfully resolve to mock them, and to give them the lie in their teeth.

He had painted it himself, for he knew how to do a little of everything—badly.

If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.