Mediocrity Quotes - Page 11

• Not all offers I get are exciting and inspiring. I would rather sit at home and not work than jump into mediocrity for the sake of just moving ahead. If its a good script, I would sacrifice my personal time and grab it.

  Rani Mukerji

  Moving, Home, Sacrifice

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• Given, a man with moderate intellect, a moral standard not higher than the average, some rhetorical affluence and a great glibness of speech, what is the career in which, without the aid of birth or money, he may most easily attain power and reputation in English society? Where is that Goshen of mediocrity in which a smattering of science and learning will pass for profound instruction, where platitudes will be accepted as wisdom, bigoted narrowness as holy zeal, unctuous egoism as God-given piety?

  George Eliot

  Men, Average, Careers

  George Eliot (1883). “The Essays of George Eliot”, p.34, Jazzybee Verlag

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• No one will ever follow you down the street if you're carrying a banner that says, "Onward toward mediocrity."

  Martin de Maat

  Banner, Streets, Ifs

  "A Conversation with Martin de Maat". The Monthly Aspectarian, August 1998.

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• Awards are merely the badges of mediocrity.

  Charles Ives

  Awards, Badges

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• If you're not passionate, you achieve mediocrity

  Jon Taffer

  Passionate, Achieve, Ifs

  Twitter post from Nov 26, 2016

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• The thinker without a paradox is like a lover without a feeling: a paltry mediocrity.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Feelings, Lovers, Paradox

  Soren Kierkegaard (2017). “Philosophical Fragments”, p.24, Jovian Press

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• The artist is today and has been for many years, despite his absence of merit, simply a spoiled child. So many honors, so much money bestowed on men without souls and without education.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Education, Art, Children

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• ... beauty, like ecstasy, has always been hostile to the commonplace. And the commonplace, under its popular label of the normal,has been the supreme authority for Homo sapiens since the days when he was probably arboreal.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Beauty, Normal, Labels

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• Philadelphians are every whit as mediocre as their neighbors, but they seldom encourage each other in mediocrity by giving it a more agreeable name.

  Agnes Repplier

  Names, Giving, Neighbor

  Agnes Repplier (2009). “American Austen: The Forgotten Writing of Agnes Repplier”, Intercollegiate Studies Institute

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• The overwhelming pressure of mediocrity, sluggish and indomitable as a glacier, will mitigate the most violent, and depress the most exalted revolution.

  T. S. Eliot

  Depressing, Pressure, Glaciers

  T. S. Eliot (2014). “Christianity and Culture”, p.55, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the stateof victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, "they" don't want me, "they" accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, "they" don't deserve me.

  Maya Angelou

  Party, Safety, Effort

  1976 Singin'and Swingin'and Getting Merry Like Christmas, ch.9.

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• Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last.

  Oscar Wilde

  Artist, Perfect, Progress

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.47, Wordsworth Editions

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• It is a great sign of mediocrity to praise always moderately.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Praise

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• A village in a country which is taking pains to become altogether standardized and pure, which aspires to succeed Victorian England as the chief mediocrity of the world, is no longer merely provincial, no longer downy and restful in its leaf-shadowed ignorance. It is a force seeking to conquer the earth. Sure of itself, it bullies other civilizations, as a traveling salesman in a brown derby conquers the wisdom of China and tacks advertisements of cigarettes over arches for centuries dedicated to the sayings of Confucius.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Country, Pain, Ignorance

  "Main Street". Book by Sinclair Lewis, 1920.

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• Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.

  James C. Collins

  Firsts, Management, Good To Great

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• I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

  Steve Earle

  Pain, Joy, Tolerance

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• Merely to have survived is not an index of excellence.

  Anthony Hecht

  Excellence, Survived

  Anthony Hecht (2012). “Collected Earlier Poems”, p.72, Knopf

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• Let some holy ambition invade our souls, so that, dissatisfied with mediocrity, we shall eagerly desire the highest things and shall toil with all our strength to obtain them, since we may if we wish.

  Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

  Ambition, Soul, Wish

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• Focus on competition has always been a formula for mediocrity.

  Daniel Burrus

  Sports, Focus, Competition

  "How Technology Is Transforming the Wine Industry" by Daniel Burrus, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 9, 2016.

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• The success of many books is due to the affinity between the mediocrity of the author's ideas and those of the public.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Book, Ideas, History

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• The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilisation, is towards collective mediocrity: and this tendency is increased by all reductions and extensions of the franchise, their effect being to place the principal power in the hands of classes more and more below the highest level of instruction in the community.

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, Hands, Class

  John Stuart Mill (2016). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.196, John Stuart Mill

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• Passion is a product of the heart. Passion is what helps you when you have a great dream. Passion breeds conviction and turns mediocrity into excellence! Your passion will motivate others to join you in pursuit of your dream. With passion, you will overcome insurmountable obstacles. You will become unstoppable!

  Andy Andrews

  Dream, Passion, Heart

  Andy Andrews (2005). “The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success”, p.81, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• NOTORIETY, n. The fame of one's competitor for public honors. The kind of renown most accessible and acceptable to mediocrity. A Jacob's-ladder leading to the vaudeville stage, with angels ascending and descending.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Leadership, Kindness, Angel

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.85, Courier Corporation

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• People who have accomplished work worthwhile have had a very high sense of the way to do things. They have not been content with mediocrity. They have not confined themselves to the beaten tracks; they have never been satisfied to do things just as others so them, but always a little better. They always pushed things that came to their hands a little higher up, this little farther on, that counts in the quality of life's work. It is constant effort to be first-class in everything one attempts that conquers the heights of excellence.

  Orison Swett Marden

  Hands, Class, People

  Orison Swett Marden (2007). “Do It to a Finish!”, p.21, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The present reeks of mediocrity and the atom bomb.

  Rene Magritte

  Atoms, Bombs, Atom Bomb

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