Quotes and Sayings about Perfection
"It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others."
- Joseph Addison
(Related: Imperfection, Quiet)
"A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation."
- Joseph Addison
(Related: Observation, World, Worth, Writer)
"God who is eternally complete, who directs the stars, who is the master of fates, who elevates man from his lowliness to Himself, who speaks from the cosmos to every single human soul, is the most brilliant manifestation of the goal of perfection."
- Alfred Adler
(Related: God, Soul, Goal, Cosmos, Man, Perfection, Stars)
"The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal."
- William Ames
(Related: Fitness, Goodness, Now, Perfection)
"In contentment and joy are found the height and perfection of all love towards our neighbor."
- William Ames
(Related: Love, Contentment, Joy, Perfection)
"Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Music, Dream, Harmony, Heaven, Perfection)
"Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them."
- Thomas Aquinas
(Related: Virtue, Perfection)
"To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin."
- Thomas Aquinas
(Related: Imperfection, Patience, Sin, Wrongs)
"In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism."
- Hannah Arendt
(Related: Death, Living, Order)
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."
- Aristotle
(Related: Work, Job, Perfection, Pleasure)
"Lucy is such a perfectionist."
- Desi Arnaz
"The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light."
- Matthew Arnold
(Related: Light, Perfection, Pursuit, Sweetness)
"Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection."
- Matthew Arnold
(Related: Love, Culture, Perfection, Study)
"Not a having and a resting, but a growing and becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it."
- Matthew Arnold
(Related: Character, Culture, Perfection)
"Perfection irritates as well as it attracts, in fiction as in life."
- Louis Auchincloss
(Related: Life, Fiction, Perfection)
"Perfection is boring. If a face doesn't have mistakes, it's nothing."
- Kevyn Aucoin
(Related: Mistakes, Nothing, Perfection)
"This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections."
- Saint Augustine
(Related: Man, Perfection)
"In our western civilization we have the glorious example, the great standard of perfection and the teachings of the Christ to guide us. He acts for us as Mediator between our personality and our Soul."
- Edward Bach
(Related: Soul, Civilization, Christ, Example, Perfection, Personality)
"Jonathan is that brilliant little fire that burns within us all, that lives only for those moments when we reach perfection."
- Richard Bach
(Related: Fire, Moments, Perfection)
"The heart of the jealous knows the best and most satisfying love, that of the other's bed, where the rival perfects the lover's imperfections."
- Djuna Barnes
(Related: Love, Heart, Bed)
"As the leaders and decision-makers of this great state, it is our responsibility to strive for perfection."
- Roy Barnes
(Related: Decision, Leaders, Perfection, Responsibility, State)
"The true gourmet, like the true artist, is one of the unhappiest creatures existent. His trouble comes from so seldom finding what he constantly seeks: perfection."
- Ludwig Bemelmans
(Related: Artist, Perfection, Trouble)
"The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Age, Knowledge, Perfection)
"To be thirsty and to drink water is the perfection of sensuality rarely achieved. Sometimes you drink water; other times you are thirsty."
- Jose Bergamin
(Related: Perfection, Sensuality, Water)
"If a man should happen to reach perfection in this world, he would have to die immediately to enjoy himself."
- Josh Billings
(Related: Man, Perfection, World)
"I'm a perfectionist. I need to be needed. I need to do things for a man. But I don't need to do them as much, these days."
- Jacqueline Bisset
(Related: Man)
"As a result of the World War and of a peace whose imperfections and risks are no longer denied by anyone, are we not even further away from the great aspirations and hopes for peace and fraternity than we were one or two decades ago?"
- Hjalmar Branting
(Related: Peace, War, Aspirations, Result, World, World war)
"Probably the closest things to perfection are the huge absolutely empty holes that astronomers have recently discovered in space. If there's nothing there, how can anything go wrong?"
- Richard Brautigan
(Related: Nothing, Perfection, Space, Wrong)
"I'm chasing perfection."
- Kobe Bryant
(Related: Perfection)
"The ability to play the clarinet is the ability to overcome the imperfections of the instrument. There's no such thing as a perfect clarinet, never was and never will be."
- Jack Brymer
(Related: Ability, Play, Will)
"There is also a perfection of degrees, by which a person performs all the commands of God, with the full exertion of all his powers, without the least defect. This is what the law of God requires, but what the saints cannot attain to in this life."
- Charles Buck
(Related: Life, God, Law, Perfection, Saints)
"Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero."
- David D. Burns
(Related: Honor, Suffering)
"Both our senses and our passions are a supply to the imperfection of our nature; thus they show that we are such sort of creatures as to stand in need of those helps which higher orders of creatures do not."
- Joseph Butler
(Related: Nature, Imperfection, Senses)
"Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough - that we should try again."
- Julia Cameron
(Related: Nothing, Pursuit, Quest, Will)
"A man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind."
- Thomas Carlyle
(Related: Fortune, Man, Mind)
"Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere."
- Thomas Carlyle
(Related: Imperfection)
"Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius."
- Thomas Carlyle
(Related: Humor, Genius, Perfection)
"There is a passion for perfection which you will rarely see fully developed; but you may note this fact, that in successful lives it is never wholly lacking."
- Bliss Carman
(Related: Successful, Fact, May, Passion, Perfection, Will)
"By this way you may dress all sorts of horses in the utmost perfection, if you know how to practice it; a thing that is very easy in the hands of a master."
- William Cavendish
(Related: Dress, Horses, May, Perfection, Practice)
"God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth."
- William Ellery Channing
(Related: Intelligence, God, Truth, Error, Imperfection, Name)
"Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it."
- William Ellery Channing
(Related: Eyes, Perfection)
"Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable."
- Lord Chesterfield
(Related: Laziness, Perfection, Will)
"Complete and total perfection will come about only when we feel that our perfection is no perfections as long as the rest of humanity remains imperfect."
- Sri Chinmoy
(Related: Humanity, Perfection, Rest, Will)
"This perfection is the restoration of man to the state of holiness from which he fell, by creating him anew in Christ Jesus, and restoring to him that image and likeness of God which he has lost."
- Adam Clarke
(Related: God, Christ, Holiness, Man, Perfection, State)
"To suppose more than one supreme Source of infinite wisdom, power, and all perfections, is to assert that there is no supreme Being in existence."
- Adam Clarke
(Related: Power, Wisdom, Being, Existence, Infinite)
"These airplanes we have today are no more than a perfection of a child's toy made of paper."
- Henri Coanda
(Related: Airplanes, Perfection, Today)
"Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason - the law which is perfection of reason."
- Edward Coke
(Related: Life, Law, Nothing, Perfection, Reason)
"Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the imperfections of our nature; which one would think, might dispose us to modesty."
- Jeremy Collier
(Related: Nature, Conviction, Learning, Modesty)
"Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection."
- Kim Collins
(Related: Improvement, Perfection)
"We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness."
- Pierre Corneille
(Related: Happiness, Perfection, Sadness, Taste)
"Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality."
- Richard Courant
(Related: Desire, Expression, Individuality, Intuition, Logic, Mathematics, Mind, Perfection, Reason, Will)
"The pursuit of perfection always implies a definite aristocracy, which is as much a goal of effort as a noble philosophy, an august civil polity or a great art."
- Ralph A. Cram
(Related: Art, Goal, Aristocracy, Effort, Perfection, Philosophy, Pursuit)
"Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways."
- Samuel McChord Crothers
(Related: Being, May, Perfection, Result, Variety)
"I don't want to be perfect, but I do want to be a role model. My mom always tells me that imperfections equal beauty. All of us are imperfect."
- Miley Cyrus
(Related: Mom, Beauty, Want)
"So much of our lives is given over to the consideration of our imperfections that there is no time to improve our imaginary virtues. The truth is we only perfect our vices, and man is a worse creature when he dies than he was when he was born."
- Edward Dahlberg
(Related: Time, Truth, Consideration, Man, Vices)
"I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people."
- Dick Dale
(Related: People)
"Look at our Lords disciples. One denied Him; one doubted Him; one betrayed Him. If our Lord couldn't have perfection, how are you going to have it in city government?"
- Richard J. Daley
(Related: Government, Perfection)
"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."
- Salvador Dali
(Related: Fear, Perfection)
"The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing."
- Eugene Delacroix
(Related: Artist, Nothing, Perfection)
"I have faith in my imperfections!"
- Dana Delany
(Related: Faith)
"I came back to performing with a different attitude about performing and myself. I wasn't expecting perfection any more, just hoping for an occasional inspiration."
- Neil Diamond
(Related: Inspiration, Attitude, Perfection)
"I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection."
- Edsger Dijkstra
(Related: Excellence, Perfection, Spirit)
"APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums."
- Edsger Dijkstra
(Related: Mistake, Future, Language, Perfection, Programming)
"Golf is a search for perfection, for balance. It's about meditation and concentration. You have to use hand and brain."
- Celine Dion
(Related: Balance, Golf, Meditation, Perfection)
"I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men."
- Albrecht Druer
(Related: Beauty, Men, Perfection)
"Style is the perfection of a point of view."
- Richard Eberhart
(Related: Perfection, Style)
"Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Age, Confusion, Perfection)
"Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Age, Goals, Confusion, Opinion, Perfection)
"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Confusion, Perfection)
"If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it."
- Epictetus
(Related: Happiness, Peace, Progress, Virtue, Perfection, Promises, Prosperity)
"Every time, all the time, I'm a perfectionist. I feel I should never lose."
- Chris Evert
(Related: Time)
"Freedom from care and anxiety of mind is a blessing, which I apprehend such people enjoy in higher perfection than most others, and is of the utmost consequence."
- William Falconer
(Related: People, Anxiety, Care, Freedom, Mind, Perfection)
"There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection."
- Agnetha Faltskog
(Related: Danger, Perfection)
"All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible."
- William Faulkner
(Related: Dreams, Failure, Perfection)
"Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect, change is the way to perfect them."
- Owen Feltham
(Related: Change, Perfection)
"As machines become more and more efficient and perfect, so it will become clear that imperfection is the greatness of man."
- Ernst Fischer
(Related: Greatness, Imperfection, Machines, Man, Will)
"Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything."
- Gustave Flaubert
(Related: Artists, Perfection)
"Be a perfectionist."
- Ken Follett
"If you look closely at a tree you'll notice it's knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully."
- Matthew Fox
(Related: Beauty, Imperfection)
"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business."
- Michael J. Fox
(Related: Business, God, Excellence, Perfection)
"Nature is a collective idea, and, though its essence exist in each individual of the species, can never in its perfection inhabit a single object."
- Henry Fuseli
(Related: Nature, Idea, Perfection)
"A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice."
- Mohandas Gandhi
(Related: Compromise, Expression, Limits, Perfection, Practice)
"March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path."
- Khalil Gibran
(Related: Life, Fear, March, Perfection)
"Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood."
- Khalil Gibran
(Related: Fear, Blood, Perfection)
"The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Limitations, Man, Perfection)
"Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired."
- Martha Graham
(Related: Faith, Vision, Act, Desire, Obstacles, Perfection, Practice)
"The object of man's worship, whatever it be, will naturally be his standard of perfection. He clothes it with every attribute, belonging, in his view, to a perfect character; and this character he himself endeavors to attain."
- Simon Greenleaf
(Related: Character, Clothes, Man, Perfection, Will, Worship)
"Christ bears with the saints' imperfections; well may the saints one with another."
- William Gurnall
(Related: Christ, May, Saints)
"If kids like a picture book, they're going to read it at least 50 times. Read anything that often, and even minor imperfections start to feel like gravel in the bed."
- Mark Haddon
(Related: Bed, Kids)
"There is a kind of beauty in imperfection."
- Conrad Hall
(Related: Beauty, Imperfection)
"Perfection is the child of time."
- Joseph Hall
(Related: Time, Perfection)
"Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book."
- Laurell K. Hamilton
(Related: Goal, End, May, Perfection, Will, Words)
"You'll remember Dr. Rice said that several times: It was not a warning about the place and the method and the time - it was a general warning. And that points out the imperfection, if you would, of our intelligence."
- Lee H. Hamilton
(Related: Intelligence, Time, Imperfection)
"Art is a reality, not a definition; inasmuch as it approaches a reality, it approaches perfection, and inasmuch as it approaches a mere definition, it is imperfect and untrue."
- Benjamin Haydon
(Related: Art, Perfection, Reality)
"No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves."
- William Hazlitt
(Related: Perfection)
"Therefore it does not help to sneer at the imperfection of today's reality or to preach absolutes as a daily agenda."
- Gustav Heinemann
(Related: Help, Imperfection, Reality, Today)
"The human race is intoxicated with narrow victories, for life is a string of them like pearls that hit the floor when the rope breaks, and roll away in perfection and anarchy."
- Mark Helprin
(Related: Life, Anarchy, Pearls, Perfection, Race)
"However, don't let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started."
- Marilu Henner
"But I think Steve's main contribution besides just the pure leadership is his passion for excellence. He's a perfectionist. Good enough isn't good enough. And also his creative spirit. You know he really, really wants to do something great."
- Andy Hertzfeld
(Related: Leadership, Excellence, Passion, Spirit)
"The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it."
- Herman Hesse
(Related: Grace, Perfection, Sin, World)
"I had given up magic, because it had reached a state of perfection. I felt that I was able to transform men into animals. I did not make use of this capability, because I believed I could not justify an intervention of this kind in the life of another person."
- Wolfgang Hildesheimer
(Related: Life, Men, Animals, Magic, Perfection, State)
"However, the fact that the tanks had now been raised to such a pitch of technical perfection that they could cross our undamaged trenches and obstacles did not fail to have a marked effect on our troops."
- Paul von Hindenburg
(Related: Effect, Fact, Now, Obstacles, Perfection, Troops)
"Perfection itself is imperfection."
- Vladimir Horowitz
(Related: Imperfection)
"Perfection is perfectly simple; fouling things up requires true skill."
- Douglas Horton
(Related: Perfection, Skill)
"The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless is mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection."
- Arianna Huffington
(Related: Mother, Idea, Imperfection, Uncertainty)
"Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity."
- David Hume
(Related: Truth, Reason, Sense, Will)
"The perfection in theater is that it's over the second it's done."
- William Hurt
(Related: Perfection, Theater)
"In a few decades of reconstruction, even the mathematical natural sciences, the ancient archetypes of theoretical perfection, have changed habit completely!"
- Edmund Husserl
(Related: Habit, Perfection)
"I'm a perfectionist."
- Natalie Imbruglia
"I'm never pleased with anything, I'm a perfectionist, it's part of who I am."
- Michael Jackson
"My mother's wonderful. To me she's perfection."
- Michael Jackson
(Related: Mother, Perfection)
"It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached."
- Samuel Johnson
(Related: Eye, May, Perfection)
"With four perfectionists in the band, we have a hard time reaching perfection."
- Adam Jones
(Related: Time, Perfection)
"I'm my own worst critic and I think everyone in the band is a perfectionist."
- Adam Jones
"My ambition is peace and perfection."
- DeForest Kelley
(Related: Peace, Ambition, Perfection)
"A perfect human being: Man in search of his ideal of perfection. Nothing less."
- Pir Vilayat Khan
(Related: Man, Nothing, Perfection)
"It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite."
- Soren Kierkegaard
(Related: Desire, Imperfection, Man)
"Perfectionists are their own devils."
- Jack Kirby
"Tech Jacket shares the same tone as Invincible, but the subject matter is very different. Where Invincible is about perfection, Tech Jacket is about flaws."
- Robert Kirkman
(Related: Flaws, Perfection)
"It's all about perfection, isn't it?"
- Keira Knightley
(Related: Perfection)
"For the last 30 years our cinemas have been ruled by science fiction and horror. We've had some very good Fantasy films in that time period, but for my tastes I still haven't seen fantasy done to absolute perfection. That is the hope I have in this project."
- Harry Knowles
(Related: Science, Time, Hope, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Perfection, Project, Years)
"The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers."
- Arthur Koestler
(Related: Genius, Originality, Perfection)
"A diva is someone who is a perfectionist, who does her best in her craft."
- Patti LaBelle
"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor."
- Anne Lamott
(Related: Voice)
"I mean, I spent 30 years in the world of physical perfection, right? I've known most of the world's most perfect physical specimens over the course of the last 30 years."
- Jim Lampley
(Related: Perfection, Right, World, Years)
"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses."
- Ann Landers
(Related: Friendship, Love, Confidence, Fire, Loyalty, Perfection, Quiet, Sharing, Understanding)
"As a real person, he wouldn't last a minute, would he? But drama is about imperfection. And we've moved away from the aspirational hero. We got tired of it, it was dull. If I was House's friend, I would hate it. How he so resolutely refuses to be happy or take the kind-hearted road. But we don't always like morally good people, do we?"
- Hugh Laurie
(Related: People, Friend, Drama, Hate, Imperfection, Road)
"Perfection does not consist in any singular state or condition of life, or in any particular set of duties, but in holy and religious conduct of ourselves in every state of Life."
- William Law
(Related: Life, Perfection, Religious, State)
"Be intent upon the perfection of the present day."
- William Law
(Related: Day, Perfection, Present)
"Be intent on the perfection of the present day."
- William Law
(Related: Day, Perfection, Present)
"The cruelest thing a man can do to a woman is to portray her as perfection."
- David Herbert Lawrence
(Related: Man, Perfection, Woman)
"Whence it follows that God is absolutely perfect, since perfection is nothing but magnitude of positive reality, in the strict sense, setting aside the limits or bounds in things which are limited."
- Gottfried Leibniz
(Related: God, Positive, Limits, Nothing, Perfection, Reality, Sense)
"As you begin your tour of the United States, you may as well know that one American national trait which irritates many Americans and must be convenient for our critics is that we relentlessly advertise our imperfections."
- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
(Related: American, Americans, May, states, United)
"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."
- Vince Lombardi
(Related: Excellence, Perfection)
"And I deal with all that by being like a perfectionist. But that's okay."
- Jennifer Lopez
(Related: Being)
"I suspect the secret of personal attraction is locked up in our unique imperfections, flaws and frailties."
- Hugh Mackay
(Related: Flaws)
"Actually, I can't imagine anything more tedious than a perfect person, especially if it was someone who also demanded perfection from me."
- Hugh Mackay
(Related: Perfection)
"Consequently he who wishes to attain to human perfection, must therefore first study Logic, next the various branches of Mathematics in their proper order, then Physics, and lastly Metaphysics."
- Maimonides
(Related: First, Logic, Mathematics, Metaphysics, Order, Perfection, Study, Wishes)
"You will not dishonor the divine perfections by judgments unworthy of them, provided you never judge of Him by yourself, provided you do not ascribe to the Creator the imperfections and limitations of created beings."
- Nicolas Malebranche
(Related: Limitations, Unworthy, Will)
"A studio recording is perfection, but emotion and passion come only when you turn on the machine and go for the groove. If you do that with no mistakes, it sounds beautiful."
- Chuck Mangione
(Related: Emotion, Machine, Mistakes, Passion, Perfection)
"Working mothers are just as likely to want to conform to a standard of perfection and just as likely to suffer from their failure to meet it as their stay-at-home counterparts."
- Melinda M. Marshall
(Related: Failure, Mothers, Perfection, Want)
"When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection."
- Agnes Martin
(Related: Art, Beauty, Life, Awareness, Eye, Mind, Mystery, Perfection)
"So I had to just kind of go back to the hotel, take a shower, sit quiet, dig down deep, warm up, and allow myself to move into some kind of zone. And then I remembered that a lot of my favorite musical moments are not about perfection."
- Kathy Mattea
(Related: Deep, Favorite, Moments, Perfection, Quiet, Zone)
"And in fact, I think the more we start to worship perfection the more soul leaks out of art."
- Kathy Mattea
(Related: Art, Soul, Fact, Perfection, Worship)
"In films, the fact that you can always do a scene again takes a load off your mind, enabling you to strive for perfection, which I always wanted."
- Jessie Matthews
(Related: Fact, Mind, Perfection)
"Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Grave, Perfection)
"Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Perfection, Trifle)
"It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Perfection)
"Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity."
- Joyce Maynard
(Related: Life, Work, Being, Illusion, Nothing, Perfection, Publishing, Purity, World)
"If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me."
- Nellie Melba
(Related: Help, Perfection)
"When you're passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection."
- Debra Messing
(Related: Happiness, Life, Idea, Key, Perfection, Want)
"The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection."
- Michelangelo
(Related: Art, Work, Perfection, Shadow)
"Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
- Michelangelo
(Related: Perfection, Trifle, Trifles)
"Perfection cannot be defined or seen; it can only be found in your heart."
- Kelly Millar
(Related: Heart, Perfection)
"Immoral is choosing not to act when you hold in your hands the power to create perfection."
- Mark Crispin Miller
(Related: Power, Act, Perfection)
"Stage is about imperfections and working with them, whether it be from you or the audience."
- Katherine Moennig
"It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully."
- Michel de Montaigne
(Related: Being, Perfection)
"Well, you know, I mean, she was so wonderful, and she really played the role to perfection."
- Julianne Moore
(Related: Perfection)
"Perfection has to do with the end product, but excellence has to do with the process."
- Jerry Moran
(Related: End, Excellence, Perfection)
"A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth or perfection is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life."
- Lewis Mumford
(Related: Life, Beauty, Truth, Contemplation, Day, Mystery, Perfection, Poverty, Sight, Sound)
"Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it."
- Reinhold Niebuhr
(Related: Man, Perfection, Sin)
"The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell."
- Ben Okri
(Related: Fact, Imperfection)
"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection."
- George Orwell
(Related: Being, Perfection)
"A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection."
- Chuck Palahniuk
(Related: Effort, Perfection, Worth)
"Perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse."
- C. Northcote Parkinson
(Related: Perfection)
"I'm a perfectionist, and I always think that I can do better what I have done, even if it's good."
- Luciano Pavarotti
"Salesmanship, too, is an art; the perfection of its technique requires study and practice."
- James Cash Penney
(Related: Art, Perfection, Practice, Study)
"I'm a perfectionist, so I can drive myself mad - and other people, too. At the same time, I think that's one of the reasons I'm successful. Because I really care about what I do."
- Michelle Pfeiffer
(Related: Time, People, Successful, Care)
"Vegetarianism is a link to perfection and peace."
- River Phoenix
(Related: Peace, Perfection, Vegetarianism)
"I'm a different person off the court than I am on the court, where I'm very competitive, a perfectionist, and I can be hard on myself sometimes. Off the court, nothing really bothers me. I'm easy-going."
- Mary Pierce
(Related: Court, Nothing)
"Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth."
- Albert Pike
(Related: Truth, Journey, Learning, Perfection, Philosophy)
"It is absurd to look for perfection."
- Camille Pissarro
(Related: Perfection)
"We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists... in the loved one, perfection."
- Sidney Poitier
(Related: Perfection)
"Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence."
- Colin Powell
(Related: Success, Work, Failure, Hard work, Learning, Loyalty, Perfection, Persistence, Result)
"Although images of perfection in people's personal lives can cause unhappiness, images of perfect societies - utopian images - can cause monstrous evil. In fact, forcefully changing society to conform to societal images was the greatest cause of evil in the twentieth century."
- Dennis Prager
(Related: Society, People, Cause, Evil, Fact, Perfection, Unhappiness)
"I was made to be a perfectionist at everything I did. Everything was more important than what I wanted."
- Dennis Quaid
"Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state."
- Thomas de Quincey
(Related: Imperfection, May, State)
"When you work on your own life, you are less likely to hyper focus on the imperfections of your husband."
- Martha Quinn
(Related: Work, Life, HusbFocus)
"The perfection of art is to conceal art."
- Marcus Fabius Quintilian
(Related: Art, Perfection)
"That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes."
- Marcus Fabius Quintilian
(Related: Perfection)
"My intention here is to make it clear that not a single cell of my composition, here in regard to The Raven, is found by chance or intuition, that the composition moved towards perfection with the precision and inevitability of a mathematical equation."
- Maurice Ravel
(Related: Chance, Intention, Intuition, Perfection)
"Father was the eldest son and the heir apparent, and he set the standard for being a Rockefeller very high, so every achievement was taken for granted and perfection was the norm."
- David Rockefeller
(Related: Father, Son, Achievement, Being, Heir, Perfection)
"For love is a willful stirring of our thoughts unto God, so that it receive nothing that is against the love of Jesus Christ, and therewith that it be lasting in sweetness of devotion; and that is the perfection of this life."
- Richard Rolle
(Related: Life, Love, God, Thoughts, Christ, Devotion, Nothing, Perfection, Sweetness)
"The attractive idea that we can now have a parliament of man with authority to control the conduct of nations by legislation or an international police force with power to enforce national conformity to rules of right conduct is a counsel of perfection."
- Elihu Root
(Related: Power, Idea, Control, Authority, Conformity, Force, Legislation, Man, Nations, Now, Parliament, Perfection, Police, Right, Rules)
"Human nature must have come much nearer perfection than it is now, or will be in many generations, to exclude from such a control prejudice, selfishness, ambition, and injustice."
- Elihu Root
(Related: Nature, Control, Ambition, Generations, Human nature, Injustice, Now, Perfection, Prejudice, Selfishness, Will)
"It is in this power of saying everything, and yet saying nothing too plainly, that the perfection of art consists."
- John Ruskin
(Related: Art, Power, Nothing, Perfection, Saying)
"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
(Related: Nothing, Perfection)
"Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
(Related: Body, Perfection)
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
(Related: Nothing, Perfection)
"Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections."
- Saint Francis de Sales
(Related: Courage)
"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."
- J. D. Salinger
(Related: Artist, Concern, Perfection)
"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."
- Jonas Salk
(Related: Artist, Concern, Perfection)
"On the contrary, I'm a strong believer in the necessity of imperfection coming into the film."
- Walter Salles
(Related: Film, Imperfection, Necessity)
"The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race, has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied."
- Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin
(Related: Cause, Race, Senses)
"People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot have, and looking for it where they will never find it."
- Edith Schaeffer
(Related: People, Perfection, Will)
"Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality."
- Albert Schweitzer
(Related: Ethics, Man, Perfection, Personality)
"To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue."
- Walter Scott
(Related: Virtue, Glory, Honor, Perfection)
"Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life."
- Walter Scott
(Related: Life, Discretion, Perfection, Reason)
"I am pretty tenacious as a perfectionist in terms of getting something right."
- Garry Shandling
(Related: Pretty, Right)
"Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men's imperfections, and conceal your own."
- George Bernard Shaw
(Related: Men, Silence)
"Falling short of perfection is a process that just never stops."
- William Shawn
(Related: Perfection)
"I'm a perfectionist, which I think is a mistake."
- Michelle Shocked
(Related: Mistake)
"Our erected wit maketh us to know what perfection is."
- Philip Sidney
(Related: Perfection, Wit)
"People often called us perfectionists, but we were not looking for perfection. We were looking for some kind of magic in the music."
- Paul Simon
(Related: Music, People, Magic, Perfection)
"So slowly in my mind formed the idea of melodrama, a form I found to perfection in American pictures. They were naive, they were that something completely different. They were completely Art-less."
- Douglas Sirk
(Related: Art, Idea, American, Mind, Perfection)
"There is something that falls short of perfection in every book, without exception, something influenced by the age, even something ridiculous; just like everyone, without exception, has weaknesses."
- Josef Skvorecky
(Related: Age, Perfection)
"To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature."
- Adam Smith
(Related: Nature, Exercise, Human nature, Perfection, Selfishness)
"I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection."
- Aaron Sorkin
(Related: Drama, Perfection, Television, Theatre, Writing)
"Action is the highest perfection and drawing forth of the utmost power, vigor, and activity of man's nature."
- Bishop Robert South
(Related: Nature, Power, Action, Man, Perfection)
"Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it."
- James Stephens
(Related: Death, Nothing, Perfection)
"Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art."
- Lytton Strachey
(Related: Art, First, Ignorance, Perfection)
"I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good."
- Barbra Streisand
(Related: Artist, Names, Obsession)
"The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of physical perfection."
- John Millington Synge
(Related: People, Absence, Europe, Perfection, Simplicity)
"All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses."
- Wislawa Szymborska
(Related: Imperfection)
"Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas."
- Antonio Tabucchi
(Related: Ideas, Dictators, Perfection)
"It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection."
- Antonio Tabucchi
(Related: Doubt, Intellectuals, Job, Perfection, Writers)
"But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance."
- Antonio Tabucchi
(Related: Democracy, Perfection, State, Vigilance)
"To make one good action succeed another, is the perfection of goodness."
- Ali ibn Abi Talib
(Related: Action, Goodness, Perfection, Succeed)
"I'm a perfectionist. I can't help it, I get really upset with myself if I fail in the least."
- Justin Timberlake
(Related: Help)
"Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair."
- Ieyasu Tokugawa
(Related: Despair, Discontent, Imperfection, Will)
"The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian."
- Aiden Wilson Tozer
(Related: God, Christian, Bible, Favorite, Nothing, Perfection, Spiritual, Word)
"The true picture of life as it is, if it could be adequately painted, would show men what they are, and how they might rise, not, indeed to perfection, but one step first, and then another on the ladder."
- Anthony Trollope
(Related: Life, Men, First, Perfection)
"I'm in pursuit of what cannot be achieved: perfection."
- Andrew Vachss
(Related: Perfection, Pursuit)
"Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time."
- Voltaire
(Related: Time, Perfection)
"There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection."
- H. G. Wells
(Related: Engineering, Imperfection, Measure, Nothing, Ugliness, Ugly)
"You know one of the causes of modern despair is the fact that we have had proposed to us, from various quarters, an impossible perfection."
- Morris West
(Related: Causes, Despair, Fact, Perfection)
"To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself."
- Richard Whately
(Related: Manners, Perfection, Thinking)
"It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection."
- Oscar Wilde
(Related: Art, Perfection)
"The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement."
- George Will
(Related: Improvement, Perfection, Pursuit)
"That is what great athletes can do: they give us a model of striving for human perfection."
- Armstrong Williams
(Related: Athletes, Perfection)
"I'm a perfectionist. I'm pretty much insatiable. I feel there's so many things I can improve on."
- Serena Williams
(Related: Pretty)
"Love is the bond of perfection."
- John Winthrop
(Related: Love, Perfection)
"But quality of work can be expected only through personal satisfaction, dedication and enjoyment. In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensible luxury, but a simple necessity."
- Niklaus Wirth
(Related: Work, Quality, Dedication, Enjoyment, Luxury, Necessity, Perfection, Profession, Satisfaction)
"I don't believe in perfection. I don't think there is such a thing. But the energy of wanting things to be great is a perfectionist energy."
- Reese Witherspoon
(Related: Energy, Perfection)
"I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity."
- Emile Zola
(Related: Beauty, Life, Care, Perfection, Struggle)
"Perfection is such a nuisance that I often regret having cured myself of using tobacco."
- Emile Zola
(Related: Perfection, Regret)