Perfection Quotes - Page 30

• I don't see perfection as far as a visual image of perfection. "Perfection" to me is, I walk away from a situation and say, "I did everything I could do right there. There was nothing more that I could do." Like, I worked as hard as I possibly could have. That's perfection.

  Drake

  Situation, Walks, Visuals

  "On the Cover: Drake". Interview with Claire Hoffman, www.gq.com. April 13, 2012.

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• I do believe deeply in perfection. I'm never satisfied.

  Michael Jackson

  Believe, Satisfied

  Twitter post from Feb 5, 2016

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• As Paradise (though of God's own Planting) was no longer Paradise than the Man was put into it, to dress it and to keep it, so nor will our Gardens remain long in their perfection unless they are also continually cultivated.

  John Evelyn

  Men, Garden, Long

  John Evelyn, William Upcott (1825). “Miscellaneous Writings”, p.430, London : H. Colburn

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• That is why all great men are modest: they consistently measure themselves not in comparison to other people but to the idea of perfection ever present in their minds, an ideal infinitely clearer and greater than any common people have, and they also realize how far they are from fulfilling their ideal.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Ideas, People

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• Man is rotten with perfection.

  Kenneth Burke

  Men, Rotten

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• Prayer is the converse of the soul with God. Therein we manifest or express to Him our reverence, and love for His divine perfection, our gratitude for all His mercies, our penitence for our sins, our hope in His forgiving love, our submission to His authority, our confidence in His care, our desires for His favour, and for the providential and spiritual blessings needed for ourselves and others.

  Charles Hodge

  Spiritual, Gratitude, Prayer

  Charles Hodge (1874). “Soteriology, eschatology”, p.692

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• If we require more perfection from women than from ourselves, it is doing them honor.

  Samuel Johnson

  Women, Honor, Ifs

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• Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live.

  Primo Levi

  Events

  Primo Levi (1995). “The Periodic Table”, Schocken

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• Perfection, in anything, is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection.

  Colleen McCullough

  Imperfection, Dull

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• Honestly, amongst all of the SHINee members, in the terms of looks, physique, expression, and everything is charismatic, and the only phrase to describe the person is 'near perfection', that member is... ME!

  Onew

  Expression, Looks, Phrases

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• We are only what we are; not what we would be; nor every thing we hope for. We are but a step in a scale, that reaches further above us than below.

  Herman Melville

  Humanity, Would Be, Steps

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1031, Delphi Classics

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• The imperfect is our paradise.
  Note that, in this bitterness, delight,
  Since the imperfect is so hot in us,
  Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.

  Wallace Stevens

  Lying, Sound, Hot

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play”, p.218, Vintage

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• The egg is the symbol of perfection. Do you want an egg?

  Mason Cooley

  Eggs, Want, Symbols

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• Few things are worth doing perfectly.

  Mason Cooley

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• To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species. The essence of man is imperfection. Imperfection and blazing contradictions-between mixed good and evil, altruism and selfishness, cooperativeness and combativeness, optimism and fatalism, affirmation and negation.

  Norman Cousins

  Men, Essence, Optimism

  Norman Cousins (1953). “Who Speaks for Man?”, New York : Macmillan

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• The impulse to perfection cannot exist where the definition of perfection is the arbitrary decision of authority. That which is born in loneliness and from the heart cannot be defended against the judgment of a committee of sycophants. The volatile essences which make literature cannot survive the clichés of a long series of story conferences.

  Raymond Chandler

  Loneliness, Heart, Essence

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.120, Univ of California Press

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• Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.

  Edmund Burke

  Art, Society, Virtue

  Edmund Burke (1860). “The Works of Edmund Burke: With a Memoir”, p.498

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• If we pretend to have reached either perfection or satisfaction, we have degraded ourselves and our work. God's work only may express that, but ours may never have that sentence written upon it, Behold it was very good.

  John Ruskin

  May, Satisfaction, Very Good

  John Ruskin (1854). “On the nature of Gothic architecture: and herein of the true functions of the workman in art. Being the greater part of the 6th chapter of the 2nd vol. of 'Stones of Venice'. [48 p.].”, p.19

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• To higher or lower ends, they [the majority of mankind] move too often with something of a sad countenance, with hurried and ignoble gait, becoming, unconsciously, something like thorns, in their anxiety to bear grapes; it being possible for people, in the pursuit of even great ends, to become themselves thin and impoverished in spirit and temper, thus diminishing the sum of perfection in the world, at its very sources.

  Walter Pater

  Moving, Ambition, People

  Walter Pater (2011). “The Works of Walter Pater”, p.60, Cambridge University Press

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• The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.... He who works for sweetness and light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail.

  Matthew Arnold

  Light, Reason, Pursuit

  Culture and Anarchy ch. 1 (1869) See Swift 1

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• Culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world.

  Matthew Arnold

  Mean, Culture, World

  Culture and Anarchy preface (1869)

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• My fatherhood made me understand my parents and to honor them more for the love they gave. My sonhood was revealed to me in its own perfection and I understood the reason the Chinese so value filiality, the responsibility of the son to honor the parents.

  Kent Nerburn

  Responsibility, Son, Parent

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• During adolescence imagination is boundless. The urge toward self-perfection is at its peak. And with all their self- absorption and personalized dreams of glory, youth are in pursuit of something larger than personal passions, some values or ideals to which they might attach their imaginations.

  Louise J. Kaplan

  Dream, Passion, Self

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• As he walks away on his own two feet--the toddler's body-mind has reached its moment of perfection. The world is his and he the mighty conqueror of all he beholds.... As long as mother sticks around in the wings, the mighty acrobat confidently performs his trick of twirling in circles, walking on tiptoe, jumping, climbing, staring, naming. He is joyous, filled with his grandeur and wondrous omnipotence.

  Louise J. Kaplan

  Mother, Omnipotence, Circles

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• Adolescents' immature thinking makes it difficult for them to process the divorce. They tend to see things in black-and-white terms and have trouble putting events into perspective. They are absolute in their judgments and expect perfection in parents. They are likely to be self-conscious about their parent's failures and critical of their every move. They have the expectations that parents will keep them safe and happy and are shocked by the broken covenant. Adolescents are unforgiving.

  Mary Pipher

  Moving, Divorce, Black And White

  Mary Pipher (2005). “Reviving Ophelia”, p.120, Penguin

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