Excellence Quotes - Page 22

• People of excellence will always be brought before people of influence.

  Bill Johnson

  People, Influence

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• God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work, not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.

  John Piper

  Dream, Passion, Thinking

  John Piper (2003). “Don't Waste Your Life”, Crossway

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• Your character is your destiny. Building character is a task for the brave and dedicated. There are no shortcuts when it comes to building character. If you wish to cure minimalism in your own life, to develop a complete commitment to excellence and an absolute rejection of mediocrity, the question you need to start asking yourself is, "What is the most I can do?"

  Matthew Kelly

  Character, Commitment, Destiny

  Matthew Kelly (2004). “The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose”, p.108, Simon and Schuster

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• Conscience, the sense of right, the power of perceiving moral distinctions, the power of discerning between justice and injustice, excellence and baseness, is the highest faculty given us by God, the whole foundation of our responsibility, and our sole capacity for religion. ...God, in giving us conscience, has implanted a principle within us which forbids us to prostrate ourselves before mere power, or to offer praise where we do not discover worth.

  William Ellery Channing

  Responsibility, Giving, Justice

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• I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind.

  Richard Price

  Art, Thinking, Mind

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• A revelation is to be received as coming from God, not because of its internal excellence, or because we judge it to be worthy of God; but because God has declared it to be His in as plain and undeniable a manner as He has declared creation and providence to be His.

  William Law

  Judging, Creation, Revelations

  William Law (1974). “The works”

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• All the different ways God has chosen to display his glory in creation and redemption seem to reach their culmination in the praises of his redeemed people. God governs the world with glory precisely that he might be admired, marvelled at, exalted and praised. The climax of his happiness is the delight he takes in the echoes of his excellence in the praises of the saints.

  John Piper

  Echoes, People, Delight

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• Some wits, too, like oracles, deal in ambiguities, but not with equal success; for though ambiguities are the first excellence of an imposter, they are the last of a wit.

  Edward Young

  Lasts, Firsts, Oracles

  Edward Young (1866). “The complete poetical works of Edward Young. With life”, p.267

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• I believe in the supreme excellence of righteousness; I believe that the law of righteousness will triumph in the universe over all evil; I believe that in the attempt to fulfil the law of righteousness, however imperfect it must remain, are to be found the inspiration, the consolation, and the sanctification of human existence.
  We live in order to finish an, as yet, unfinished universe, unfinished so far as the human, that is, the highest part of it, is concerned. We live in order to develop the superior qualities of man which are, as yet, for the most part latent.

  Felix Adler

  Inspiration, Believe, Men

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

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• Naturally, grown-up citizens are concerned about the beatniks and delinquents. ... The question is why the grownups do not, more soberly, draw the same conclusions as the youth. Or, since no doubt many people are quite clear about the connection that the structure of society that has becoming increasingly dominant in our country is disastrous to the growth of excellence and manliness, why don't more people speak up and say so?

  Paul Goodman

  Country, People, Doubt

  Growing Up Absurd" by Paul Goodman, (p. 10), 1956.

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• Ask the proficient athlete, artist, businessperson, or homemaker what creates excellence and they'll all agree: a commitment to long-term goals - and with a community of mentors and fellow "disciples."

  Michael Horton

  Athlete, Commitment, Artist

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• Excellence is being thwarted not only by laziness but by reckless attachment to causes, programs, and - in some cases, leaders.

  Michael Horton

  Attachment, Leader, Laziness

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• It is quite rare to find people who are really dedicated to a level of excellence. Most of us are really quite lazy most of the time.

  Ethan Hawke

  People, Lazy, Levels

  "Ethan Hawke's Fifth Elements". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. June 14, 2012.

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• Excellence is not an aspiration. Excellence is what you do in the next five minutes.

  Tom Peters

  Next, Minutes, Aspiration

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• You can get people the qualifications; But you can't teach them the qualities they're going to need. You can't teach integrity, a drive for excellence, refusal to quit under pressure. It's too late to build that into people you're going to hire.

  Roger Ailes

  Integrity, People, Quality

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• There is a metaphysical honour in ending the world's absurdity. Conquest or play-acting, multiple loves, absurd revolt are tributes that man pays to his dignity in a campaign in which he is defeated in advance.... War cannot be negated. One must live it or die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons and recovering their flesh. In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. "Art and nothing but art", said Nietzsche, "we have art in order not to die of the truth."

  Albert Camus

  Art, War, Men

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• The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time.

  Ed Bliss

  Perfection, Healthy, Waste

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• The good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties. This exercise must occupy a complete lifetime. One swallow does make a spring, nor does one fine day. Excellence is a habit, not an event.

  Aristotle

  Spring, Exercise, Men

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• Excellence nourishes the soul.

  Leonard L. Berry

  Soul

  Leonard L. Berry (1995). “On Great Service: A Framework for Action”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

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• Form, which should be the clean - cut expression of mechanical excellence has become sensuous and organic.

  Raymond Loewy

  Cutting, Expression, Clean

  "Autoeroticism". Book by Karal Ann Marling and ‎Donald J. Bush (p. 16), 1989.

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• We will never get great art from women if their education exposes them only to the second-rate and if the idea of greatness itself is denied. Greatness is not a white male trick. Every important world civilization has defined its artistic tradition in elitist terms of distinction and excellence.

  Camille Paglia

  Art, Greatness, Civilization

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Vamps & Tramps: New Essays”, p.115, Vintage

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• The pursuit of excellence is the proper vocation of man.

  Cassius Jackson Keyser

  Men, Pursuit, Vocation

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• Great teachers and schools expect and nurture quality work and quality performance. Great teachers inspire and demand quality, ever urging their students to higher levels of excellence. They shun mere conformity and expect their students to think and perform to their ever-increasing potential.

  Oliver DeMille

  Teacher, School, Thinking

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• Tall peaks are not always better than long plateaus as true greatness must include protracted excellence.

  Matthew Hayden

  Greatness, Long, Plateaus

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• While dwelling with pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the condition of himself and his fellow men.

  John Quincy Adams

  Powerful, Blessed, Men

  John Quincy Adams (1965). “John Quincy Adams and American continental empire: letters, papers and speeches”, Chicago, Quadrangle Books

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