Mediocre Quotes - Page 17

• Bad books on writing tell you to "WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW", a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery.

  Joe Haldeman

  Book, Writing, Adultery

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• For me, running is both exercise and a metaphor. Running day after day, piling up the races, bit by bit I raise the bar, and by clearing each level I elevate myself. At least that’s why I’ve put in the effort day after day: to raise my own level. I’m no great runner, by any means. I’m at an ordinary – or perhaps more like mediocre – level. But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.

  Haruki Murakami

  Running, Distance, Mean

  FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Jun 03, 2015

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• Living is not this tawdry, mediocre, disciplined thing which we call our existence. Living is something entirely different; it is abundantly rich, timelessly changing, and as long as we don't understand that eternal movement, our lives are bound to have very little meaning.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Spiritual, Long, Different

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• Effort is between you, and you, and nobody else. So that team that thinks it's ready to see you, they think what they've seen on film, they ain't saw what film shows, because every day is a new day. Every moment is a new moment. So now you've got to go out and show them that I'm a different creature now, than I was five minutes ago, cause I'm pissed off for greatness. Cause if you ain't pissed off for greatness, that just means you're okay with being mediocre, and ain't no man in here okay with just basic.

  Ray Lewis

  Determination, Team, Mean

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• Mediocre people are the most dangerous people in the world.

  Bill Cosby

  People, World, Dangerous

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• It's hard to make something that's interesting. It's really, really hard. It's like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that's written or anything that's created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity... So what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such an act of will.

  Ira Glass

  Writing, Law, Aerodynamics

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• There are many mediocre entertainers who don't aspire to much more than fame and glory. It's very easy to have them as your role models because there aren't as many greats.

  Carmen Ejogo

  Role Models, Roles, Glory

  Interview with Kam Williams, newsblaze.com. August 14, 2012.

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• Class I to XII wasn't much help; I was always a mediocre student. But when I pursued higher education and studied economics with theatre or psychology with science fiction, I got a whole new world view.

  Vir Das

  Views, Class, Psychology

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• Confidence is the prize given to the mediocre

  Robert Hughes

  Given, Prize

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• Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read.

  Frank Zappa

  Motivational, Senior, Educational

  "Song: "Hungry Freaks Daddy" ("Freak Out!")". June 27, 1966.

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• The mediocre golfer generally is one who is too lazy to play better.

  Babe Didrikson Zaharias

  Play, Lazy, Golfers

  Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1948). “Championship golf”

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• The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering the weaknesses of those greater than itself.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Mind, Criticism, Weakness

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• It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.

  Ivan Turgenev

  Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Richard Freeborn (1998). “Fathers and Sons”, p.79, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.

  Joseph Heller

  Men, People, Three

  Catch-22 ch. 9 (1961)

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• Some people insist that "mediocre" is better than "best." They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can't fly. They despise brains because they have none.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Wings, People, Brain

  "Have Space Suit - Will Travel" by Robert A. Heinlein, (Ch. 9), 1958.

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• Anything would be better in the US than what you have. As a government it's really very low quality, given the fact that this country produces eminent intellectuals, has great universities, and then the people who arrive in government are very mediocre. The Latin American situation has been very different in the first place, because writers have spoken for those who have no voice. The rate of illiteracy, poverty, joblessness in Latin America has been so great throughout our history that if the writers didn't speak out for the people, nobody would.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Country, Latin, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Dear Young People, do not be mediocre; the Christian life challenges us with great ideals!

  Pope Francis

  Christian, People, Challenges

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• If one is the kind of creature I am and wants to do the kind of writing I want to do, an undisturbed bourgeois existence with no distractions seems in order. A single meeting outside the family upsets one's whole inner web, makes one start off on two-days' thinking and weighing, destroys a delicate balance etc. etc. ... I now have enough friends to last me a lifetime and that is enough. I am going to close the doors and hibernate at least for a couple of years. I am frightfully depressed about my work. It seems to me perfectly mediocre.

  May Sarton

  Couple, Writing, Thinking

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• We are given in our newspapers and on TV and radio exactly what we, the public, insist on having, and this very frequently is mediocre information and mediocre entertainment.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Media, Information, Entertainment

  Eleanor Roosevelt, Rochelle Chadakoff, David Emblidge (1989). “Eleanor Roosevelt's My Day: First lady of the world, her acclaimed columns, 1953-1962”

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• How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life. Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days - which inevitably create a successful life - in the same way that unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre mornings generate unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre days, and ultimately a mediocre quality of life. By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible.

  Hal Elrod

  Morning, Successful, Quality

  "The Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits That Will Transform Your Life Before 8AM". Book by Hal Elrod, December 7, 2012.

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• I think the key that differentiates the good actors from the mediocre ones that are still trying to come up, is that the good ones know how to listen. It's like being in a jazz band. They know how to listen to what the other musicians are playing. And where to come in and where to sit out. That's my approach to being in an ensemble cast and working with any kind of actors in a scene.

  Wesley Snipes

  Thinking, Keys, Trying

  Source: collider.com

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• You have a responsibility to act for others when you're the only person in a position to do so. It's how you handle it that separates the great from the mediocre.

  Wilbert Rideau

  Responsibility, Position, Persons

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• Here is the reality - as I've been saying for longer than I can remember, Scott Walker is a mediocre county executive who has risen far beyond his talents.

  Rick Ungar

  Reality, Talent, Remember

  "Scott Walker Presidential Bid Self-Destructs On ABC's 'This Week'". www.forbes.com. February 2, 2015.

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• We are the mediocre, we are the half givers, we are the half lovers, we are the savourless salt. Break the hard crust of complacency. Quicken in us the sharp grace of desire.

  Caryll Houselander

  Grace, Desire, Complacency

  Caryll Houselander (1945). “The Flowering Tree”

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• We on the left have forgotten that the question is not how do you get good people to rule, most people who rule are mediocre at best and usually venal. The question is how do we make those in power frightened of us and not be seduced by formal political processes.

  Chris Hedges

  People, Political, Forgotten

  "Thom Hartmann Talks to Chris Hedges About How Liberals Are a Useless Lot". Interview with Thom Hartmann, www.thomhartmann.com. December 07, 2009.

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