quotations about mediocrity
Persevering mediocrity is much more respectable, and unspeakably more useful, than talented inconstancy.
JAMES HAMILTON
Life in Earnest
Mediocrity is best in every thing.
CLEOBULUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity. And since mediocre people constitute the bulk of humanity, this is no doubt very properly so.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers
How many minds are there to whom scarcely any good can be done! They have no excitability. You must leave them as you find them, in permanent mediocrity.
JOHN FOSTER
The Life and Correspondence of John Foster
There is no impertinence like the impertinence of mediocrity.
CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM
The Maxims of Marmaduke
Buried beneath the mountains of books desperately searching for excellence, ten stepping to success and so forth, the all pervasive rule of mediocrity is ignored. It is time to devote serious attention and study to this major component of today's way of life. Mediocrity is no bar to success. Many of our top salaried executives and managers are people who produced mediocre results. The mediocrity of their performance is far overshadowed by the size of their salaries, fame and power.
AL MICHAUD
Mediocrity in Ten Easy Steps
Mediocrity has long been considered a universal principle, extended through the whole compass of life and nature; the experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to show that nothing, however specious and alluring, is pursued with propriety, or enjoyed with safety, beyond certain limits.
DR. JOHNSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but walking orderly; its grandeur does not exercise itself in grandeur, but in mediocrity.
MONTAIGNE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
attributed, Day's Collacon
Simply put, mediocrity is living below our known, true potential. It is accepting the norm, pleasing the status quo, and doing what we can get by with.
MYLES MUNROE
Myles Munroe Devotional & Journal: 365 Days to Realize Your Potential
Mediocrity seems to be acceptable everywhere you look in our society. On one side, it is not fully passionate: on the other, it is not completely lifeless. Some live their lives and perform their jobs in a half-hearted manner, and wonder why they don't see the same results as someone who is extremely committed. Would you want a mediocre doctor performing a life or death brain operation on you? Would you want a less-than-ordinary contractor building your brand new beach house?
KELLY HILL
Destined for Greatness
Mediocrity is an evil that steals dreams, destroys potential and robs us of God's perfect plan for our lives. Guard against it.
AYA FUBARA ENELI
Live Your Abundant Life
Don't set out to raze all shrines--you'll frighten men. Enshrine mediocrity--and the shrines are razed.
AYN RAND
The Fountainhead