Quotes About Mediocrity

In your working conditions avoid everyday mediocrity. Semi-relaxation, to a background of insipid sounds, is degrading. On the other hand, accompaniment by an etude or a cacophony of voices can become as significant for work as the perceptible silence of the night. If the latter sharpens the inner ear, the former acts as a touchstone for a diction ample enough to bury even the most wayward sounds.

In our time equality is confused with conformity – as Nietzsche sees it– and it is taken to involve the renunciation of personal initiative and the demand for a general leveling. Men are losing the ambition to be equally excellent, which involves as the surest means the desire to excel one another in continued competition, and they are becoming resigned to being equally mediocre.

A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.

Awards are merely the badges of mediocrity.

To live and praise God in blessed mediocrity (Tonio! spiritual brother!), to be at home in the world—how with bitter passion he envied that and them, people like Sam here, pouring the rye.

Anybody who accepts mediocrity - in school, on the job, in life - is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises.

Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

To be mediocre is not to be small. . . . We are physically small compared to the galaxies, but our minds encompass the universe

Excel in your field: Whatever you do, try to be the best at it. There is too much mediocrity all around and we have learnt to live with it. However, awesomeness has no place for mediocrity. And do not confuse excellence with elitism. Being excellent at your work is different from considering yourself superior to others.

The function of genius is not to give new answers, but to pose new questions, which time and mediocrity can resolve.

One would like to be grand and heroic, if one could; but if not, why try at all? One wants to be very something, very great, very heroic; or if not that, then at least very stylish and very fashionable. It is this everlasting mediocrity that bores me.

We are running the risk of becoming a society whittled down to mediocrity, honed to conformity, and valued in statistical averages. We are becoming computerized, monopolized, bureaucratized; we are becoming hero worshipers at the Temple of Sham.

A strong accountability system needs to broaden, not narrow, the curriculum. That cannot happen if you only have accountability without adequate school funding. Until Tallahassee understands the need to raise the bar as well as the financial investment, Florida will continue to celebrate mediocrity at the expense of true achievement.

Complacency is the forerunner of mediocrity. You can never work too hard on attitudes, effort and technique.

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

If a person becomes content with what is average, minimally acceptable, or satisfactory, she will rarely exert the effort or work toward something that is truly excellent or outstanding.

Stay away from excellence at all costs; it stinks.

It's lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for 'realistic' goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.

6. «Intentar gustar a todo el mundo es un signo de mediocridad. Evitarás las decisiones difíciles y evitarás enfrentarte a la gente a la que debes enfrentarte.» — Colin Powell

Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for "realistic" goals, paradoxically making them the most time-and energy-consuming.

It's lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for "realistic" goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming. It is easier to raise $1,000,000 than it is $100,000. It is easier to pick up the one perfect 10 in the bar than the five 8s.

a tolerable and comfortable existence doing something unfulfilling.

5—You can't reason someone out of something they didn't reason themselves into. #6—"Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You'll avoid the tough decisions, and you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted."—Colin Powell #7—"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."—Epictetus

5—You can't reason someone out of something they didn't reason themselves into. #6—"Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You'll avoid the tough decisions, and you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted."—Colin Powell #7—"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."—Epictetus Cato