Perfection Quotes

Be intent upon the perfection of the present day.

William Law

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

Logan Pearsall Smith

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists... in the loved one, perfection.

Sidney Poitie

It seems to me that perfection of means and confusion of goals seems to characterize our age.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou has many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou are not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?

Thomas a Kempis

Perfection can be achieved by no one, because perfection is achieved from faults - Yet faults tear away the perfection in you.

Mary Ross

But no perfection is so absolute, That some impurity doth not pollute.

William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece Ver. 124

Since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Mirror Dance, 1994, p. 287

While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy; the second is perfection, which all should aim at.

Oscar Wilde

My life is music. And in some vague, mysterious, and subconscious way, I have always been driven by a taut inner spring which has propelled me to almost compulsively reach for perfection in music, often - - In fact, mostly - - At the expense of everything else in my life.

Stan Getz

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.

Wallace Stevens

Evolution crawls to imperfection. It ends in extinction.

J. Gregory Keyes, "Babylon 5: Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps".

Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.

La Bruyere

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

George Will

The humorous man recognizes that absolute purity, absolute justice, absolute logic and perfection are beyond human achievement and that men have been able to live happily for thousands of years in a state of genial frailty.

Brooks Atkinson

Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.

Samuel McChord Crothers

Have no fear of perfection - - You will never reach it.

Salvador Dali

Perfection is the enemy of the good.

Gustave Flaubert

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint - Exupery