56 quotes 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.

Addison, Joseph

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Arnauld, Angelique

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.

Augustine, St.

I don't like these cold, precise, perfect people who, in order not to speak wrong, never speak at all, and in order not to do wrong, never do anything.

Beecher, Henry Ward

Be ye therefore perfect, eve as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

Bible

If a man should happen to reach perfection in this world, he would have to die immediately to enjoy himself.

Billings, Josh

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.

Carlyle, Thomas

Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.

Channing, William Ellery

Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.

Chateaubriand, Vicomte De

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.

Chesterfield, Lord

We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.

Corneille, Pierre

Have no fear of perfection-you'll never reach it.

Dali, Salvador

The more perfect a thing is, the more susceptible to good and bad treatment it is.

Dante (Alighieri)

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.

Delacroix, Eugene

Everything is perfect in the universe -- even your desire to improve it.

Dyer, Wayne

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

Eliot, George

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

Epictetus

Every time, all the time, I'm a perfectionist. I feel I should never lose.

Evert, Chris

When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.

Fisher, Geoffrey F.

Perfection is the child of time.

Hall, Joseph

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

Hazlitt, William

You can spend a lifetime, and, if you're honest with yourself, never once was your work perfect.

Heston, Charlton

The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization.

Horney, Karen

Perfection is perfectly simple; fouling things up requires true skill.

Horton, Doug

The only nice thing about being imperfect is the joy it brings to others.

Larson, Doug

Perfection has one grave defect. It is apt to be dull.

Maugham, W. Somerset

Perfection is what American women expect to find in their husbands... but English women only hope to find in their butlers.

Maugham, W. Somerset

American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.

Maugham, W. Somerset

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.

Maugham, W. Somerset

Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.

Newman, Cardinal J.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals.

Orwell, George

I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active --not more happy --nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

Poe, Edgar Allan

No barber shaves so close but another finds his work.

Proverb, English

The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.

Randall, Stanely J.

No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.

Ruskin, John

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.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

Shakespeare, William

If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do.

Shaw, George Bernard

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection --even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano --is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

Smith, Logan Pearsall

All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.

Spinoza, Baruch (Benedict de)

Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it, said the Philosopher.

Stephens, James

Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, dead perfection; no more.

Tennyson, Lord Alfred

The nearest to perfection that most people come is when filling out an employment application.

Unknown, Source

No one becomes perfect, but some become great.

Unknown, Source

It is no crime not to be perfect

Unknown, Source

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solitude is the enemy of well-being.

Updike, John

I have always suspected that correctness is the last refuge of those who have nothing to say.

Wasiman, Friedrich

So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.

Webb, Beatrice Potter

Perfecting is our destiny, but perfection never our lot.

Weber, C. J.

The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth.

Wilde, Oscar

The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.

Wilde, Oscar

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

Will, George F.

Perfection is our goal, excellence will be tolerated.

Yahl, J.

The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work, and if it take the second must refuse a heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.

Yeats, William Butler