John Henry Newman Quotes

Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.

It sounds funny, but my biggest fear is that I'm not perfect. I'm a perfectionist, and I get upset when things go wrong or when I don't do well.

I don't like doing most things unless I can do them quite well.

I've learned how my own perfectionism can cripple me.

I've always been like this - insecure - because I'm striving for something that can't be attained. I don't just want to be OK at this: I want to be the best at it, and I've never achieved that in my mind.

I think I would have written five times as much as I've written if I didn't have this terrible sense of perfection.

Perfectionism is not as much the desire for excellence, as it is the fear of failure couched in procrastination .

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.

I second-guess and overthink and rethink every single thing that I do.

The relentless pursuit of perfection has been my problem over the years. It's maybe held me back.

I've never been super confident about anything. The work is never as good as it could be.

Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.

I had such high expectations of myself. I was going to be the best mother, the best housewife, the best entertainer, the best nurse, you know - what it was, I was going to be the best. And I could never live up to my expectations.

If I didn't do something perfectly, I had to do it again... I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head.

I've never felt completely satisfied with what I've done. I tend to see things too critically. I'm trying to get over that.

If you're going to worry about what people say, you're never going to make any progress.

I still worry that I could be better. That's where standards come from, from not wanting to settle. The fear of not being good enough propels you.

If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done.

In my case, the long gaps between my books have got quite a lot to do with lack of confidence. A lot of the time when I'm not writing I start thinking I can't do it.

I would consider myself a perfectionist, yeah. I don't think that is always that helpful, either. Sometimes it's good to be a little more open-minded; you can overthink things when things are actually fine, and it's that moment that you lose it. Looking back, sometimes I've made mistakes from being a perfectionist.

I don't believe in perfection. I don't think there is such a thing. But the energy of wanting things to be great is a perfectionist energy.

I want to be perfect. I don't want to fail. And you always fail.

I'm a perfectionist to a fault.

With every job I watch, I can't find peace with what I've done. It's never good enough in my mind. I will never be happy if I'm in that mindset, unless I get a review that starts: 'Once in a generation.'

Every word I write I suspect the next day.