Mediocrity Quotes - Page 19

• The greatest secret in the world is that you only have to be a small measurable amount better than mediocrity ...and you've got it made.

  Og Mandino

  Secret, World, Made

  Og Mandino (2009). “The Greatest Secret in the World”, p.110, Bantam

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• When Americans decry our politicians, we must remember that ultimately, politicians reflect us. When we demand more than mediocrity - and the passing comforts it bestows - we will certainly attain it. One hopes and prays it doesn't take an historic crisis for us to demand and reward excellence in public service.

  James M Strock

  Excellence, Comfort, Praying

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• Neat trick: to be roused to ambition and reconciled to one's mediocrity at the same time.

  Mason Cooley

  Time, Ambition, Tricks

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• Public Opinion, this invisible, intangible, omnipresent, despotic tyrant; this thousand-headed Hydra - the more dangerous for being composed of individual mediocrities...

  H. P. Blavatsky

  Tyrants, Public Opinion, Hydra

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• Over and over again mediocrity is promoted because real worth isn't to be found.

  Kathleen Norris

  Real, Found

  Kathleen Thompson Norris (1931). “Hands Full of Living: Talks with American Women”

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• It is better to excel in any single art than to arrive only at mediocrity in several, so moderate skill in several is to be preferred where one cannot attain to perfection in any.

  Pliny the Younger

  Art, Skills, Perfection

  Pliny (the Younger) (1807). “The Letters of Pliny the Consul: With Occasional Remarks”, p.195

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• Moderation assures mediocrity -- nice, safe. Mediocrity is for the mediocre -- simple, okay. The intense rule; the mediocre follow.

  Dave Draper

  Nice, Simple, Safe

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• Once you compromise yourself in one way, you compromise yourself in another way. And you've just opened the door to compromise, mediocrity, settling.

  Lauryn Hill

  Doors, Way, Compromise

  "Queen of Hip-Hop". The Academy of Achievements Interview, www.achievement.org. June 18, 2000.

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• The height of mediocrity is still low.

  Vanna Bonta

  Height, Lows, Stills

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• Mediocrity inspires neither great love nor hate.

  Vanna Bonta

  Love, Hate, Inspire

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• A quiet mediocrity is still to be preferred before a troubled superfluity.

  John Suckling

  Quiet, Stills

  Sir John Suckling (1766). “The Works of Sir John Suckling: Containing His Poems, Letters, and Plays”, p.128

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• Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a mixture of prosperous and adverse fortune that inspire us with lenity and pity.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Men, Inspire, Mixtures

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• All I desire is, that my poverty may not be a burden to myself, or make me so to others; and that is the best state of fortune that is neither directly necessitous nor far from it. A mediocrity of fortune, with gentleness of mind, will preserve us from fear or envy; which is a desirable condition; for no man wants power to do mischief.

  Seneca the Younger

  Men, Envy, Mind

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• Mediocrity is beneath a brave soul.

  Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

  Brave, Soul, Brave Souls

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• Our literature, despite several false starts that promised much, is chiefly remarkable, now as always, for its respectable mediocrity.

  H. L. Mencken

  Literature, Remarkable, Respectable

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

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• Think you are weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second class - think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity.

  David J. Schwartz

  Thinking, Class, Way

  David J. Schwartz (2014). “The Magic of Thinking Big”, p.118, Penguin

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• Probability is a kind of penance, which God made, suitable, I presume to that state of mediocrity and probationership he has been pleased to place us in here; wherein, to check our over-confidence and presumption, we might, by every day's experience, be made sensible of our short-sightedness, and liableness to error.

  John Locke

  Kindness, Errors, Might

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• We must acknowledge that we made a huge error in satisfying the lowest common denominator of the available human potential in Nigeria and we elevated what I call the reign of mediocrity. Quite frankly, I think it is about repudiating the past, creating space for new thinking for the best of the new generation, creating both political and geographical space and going at it with single mindedness that says, 'enough of buttering, sentiments and massaging the ego of the old brigade'.

  Wole Soyinka

  Past, Thinking, Space

  Source: saharareporters.com

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• Pumpkin pie is a living symbol of mediocrity. The best pumpkin pie you ever ate wasn't all that much different from the worst pumpkin pie you ever ate.

  Garrison Keillor

  Pie, Different, Pumpkin

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• That's probably one of my biggest gripes with the Internet - that it settles for mediocrity and disinformation, which puts all information on the same level. Everything has the same value, whether it's Albert Einstein speaking, or yoohoo27@msn.com.

  Harlan Ellison

  Levels, Information, Internet

  "Harlan Ellison, Part Two". Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. June 08, 2008.

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• I think art must be tough! I think art has to be hard. I don't think it should be easy. I think it should take foot-pounds of energy to produce that art, otherwise we would have more mediocre writers, and we don't have room for any more mediocrity in the world. There's already enough of it being visited on us night and day through the Internet, and through television, and through politics.

  Harlan Ellison

  Art, Night, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Rich men are neither better nor worse than all other humans. They contribute to greatness or mediocrity, strength of character or weakness in exactly the same proportion as persons in all other walks of life do.

  Julius Rosenwald

  Character, Greatness, Men

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• Today we've learned to celebrate mediocrity. Back in the day we had creative artists; today we have created artists.

  Lionel Richie

  Artist, Creative, Today

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• Nobody rises above mediocrity unless they use the brains of other people.

  Napoleon Hill

  People, Brain, Use

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• There's a perception that British pies suffer from mediocrity, and historically they have. We're trying to re-educate people about what pie is.

  James Robertson

  Pie, People, Perception

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