Mediocrity Quotes - Page 7

• We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Stupid, Two, Support

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• Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Inspirational, Motivational, Leadership

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• Pat answers to complex problems are the hallmark of intellectual mediocrity

  Theodosius Dobzhansky

  Intellectual, Answers, Problem

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• There are the those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behaviour and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity.

  Katherine Dunn

  Brain, Behaviour, Originality

  FaceBook post by Katherine Dunn from Jan 29, 2012

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• Decision is often the difference between greatness and mediocrity. In every man's life there comes a time when he must search for a cause, a work, an ideal to which he can give himself. Whether he says 'Yes' or 'No' to the challenge will determine his future.

  Wilferd Peterson

  Greatness, Men, Differences

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• If you think you’re average, then you’ll be average. If you think you’re ordinary, then you’ll live ordinary. The truth is, there is nothing ordinary about you. You have something to offer that nobody else can offer.

  Joel Osteen

  Thinking, Average, Ordinary

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• 'Good enough' stopped being good enough a long time ago. so why not be great?

  Seth Godin

  Long, Why Not, Good Enough

  Seth Godin (2008). “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us”, p.31, Penguin

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• Mediocrity makes the most of its native possessions.

  Blaise Pascal

  Possession, Native

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• You don't have to settle. It's a choice you get to make every day.

  Seth Godin

  Choices, Settling, Status Quo

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• Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.

  Albert Camus

  Retirement, Mediocre, Happy Death

  Albert Camus (2012). “Happy Death”, p.82, Vintage

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• Once you start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for mediocrity.

  Neil Simon

  Compromise, Candidates

  Neil Simon (1988). “Biloxi Blues”, Signet

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• You can’t talk mediocrity and expect to have victory. You are prophesying your future. If you want a shift to occur, you’ve got to think positive.

  Joel Osteen

  Thinking, Victory, Think Positive

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• Mediocrity's easy, the good things take time, the great need commitment.

  Bob Seger

  Commitment, Needs, Easy

  Song: Lock And Load

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• Mediocrity is always in a rush; but whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing with consideration. For genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.

  Amelia Barr

  Genius, Consideration, Wells

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• The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what the task may be. This is a habit followed by all successful people since the beginning of time. Therefore I saith the surest way to doom yourself to mediocrity is to perform only the work for which you are paid.

  Og Mandino

  Success, Wise, Mean

  Og Mandino (2009). “The Greatest Miracle in the World”, p.99, Bantam

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• People rise and fall to meet your level of expectations for them. If you express skepticism and doubt in others, they will return your lack of confidence with mediocrity. But if you believe in them and expect them to do well, they will go the extra mile trying to do their best.

  John C. Maxwell

  Believe, Fall, People

  John C. Maxwell, Jim Dornan (2013). “How to Influence People: Make a Difference in Your World”, p.37, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• It is very difficult to be like the other guy, to be ordinary. Mediocrity takes a great deal of energy. But to be ourselves is very easy. You don't have to do a thing.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Being Yourself, Guy, Energy

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• What depresses me is the inevitable way the second rate forges ahead and the deserving is left behind.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Depressing, Way, Inevitable

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1958). “Letters of Ellen Glasgow”

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• Ninety-nine percent of people believe they can't do great things, so they aim for mediocrity.

  Tim Ferriss

  Believe, Learning, Ninety Nine

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• The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, not heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism - no, but the kind of orthodoxy which is cordial drivel, mediocrity served up sweet. There is nothing that so insidiously displaces the majestic as cordiality.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Christian, Sweet, Atheist

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• Music is a place to take refuge. It's a sanctuary from mediocrity and boredom. It's innocent and it's a place you can lose yourself in thoughts, memories and intricacies.

  Lisa Gerrard

  Memories, Boredom, Sanctuary

  "Sanctuary: Lisa Gerrard". Tagline, www.imdb.com. September 18, 2006.

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• A good number of works owe their success to the mediocrity of their authors' ideas, which match the mediocrity of those of the general public.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Ideas, Numbers, General Public

  "Chamfort: Reflections on Life, Love & Society". Book by Nicolas Chamfort, 1795.

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• Maturity is the ability to harness your abilities and your energies and do more than is expected. The mature person refuses to settle for mediocrity. He/she would rather aim high and miss the mark than low-and make it.

  Ann Landers

  Maturity, Mature Person, Missing

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• Mediocre men sometimes fear great office, and when they do not aim at it, or when they refuse it, all that is to be concluded is that they are aware of their mediocrity.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Men, Office, Sometimes

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• The real geniuses know where their writing has to be good and where they can get away with some mediocrity.

  Dmitri Shostakovich

  Real, Writing, Genius

  "Composers On Music: Eight Centuries of Writings". Book by Josiah Fisk, p. 355. In conversation with Isaac Glikman (July 4, 1966), January 30, 1997.

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